AP: Turnabout Is Fair Play

So the AP doesn't want bloggers to use their content without paying. Remember when you were in college and wrote a paper and quoted an AP newspaper article and gave credit? That's called fair use and it's not copyright infringement. It's quoting with attribution. Bloggers do this all the time. AP doesn't like it and want to charge bloggers per word. It's hilarious, but they're serious. Seriously stupid.

Michelle Malkin would like to charge AP for using her material without attribution and no link--a serious violation of blogger ethics. You'll notice, that when I quote someone or appreciate their take, I link it. Major newspapers don't seem to feel bound by this same courtesy. They are above the insignificant bloggers but have no problem lifting material. Michelle says:

Ok, let’s play. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course. Unlike the AP, bloggers appreciate getting linked and excerpted. That is how we roll in the 21st century.
But let’s apply AP standards for the hell of it. I have found two recent examples of the AP quoting from this blog without linking to the quoted posts or obtaining my consent for a usage agreement. In April, AP quoted from the comment thread in this post about Absolut’s Aztlan vodka ad:
More than a dozen calls to boycott Absolut were posted on michellemalkin.com, a Web site operated by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin. The ads sparked heated comment on a half-dozen other Internet sites and blogs.
“In an Absolut world, a company that produces vodka fires its entire marketing department in a desperate attempt to win back enraged North American customers after a disastrous ad campaign backfires,” a person using the moniker “SalsaNChips” wrote on Malkin’s Web site.
That’s 42 words. Cha-ching-ching-ching.

The old media is dying and they think this will breath life into them. Ace has a novel solution.

I have a solution: Never again link to the AP, don't read anything from the AP and exclusively read original content on the Web or from writers.