Associated Press is even dumber than we initially thought!

Posted on June 17, 2008 by | 9 Comments

Follow up on this story (re-check the links within for background):
Jeff Jarvis: AP, hole, dig
Patrick Nielsen Hayden: The Associated Press wants to charge you $12.50 to quote five words from them
Cory Doctorow: Associated Press expects you to pay to license 5-word quotations (and reserves the right to terminate your license)
Afarensis: AP to Bloggers: You Must Pay or Our Narcs Will Get You!
Patrick Nielsen Hayden: The Associated Press: worse than merely foolish
Oh, oh. Associated Press is sooooooo dead on arrival. Nice to have known you have existed, cavemen!

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9 responses to “Associated Press is even dumber than we initially thought!”

  1. John's avatar John | June 17, 2008 at 11:35 pm |

    I guess it’s time to stop linking AP stories.

  2. Coturnix's avatar Coturnix | June 18, 2008 at 12:03 am |

    Yes, let’s ignore them into oblivion. There are always better sources anyway – they do not usually add any value anyway. They are just so darned ubiquitous, it’s hard to avoid them, we need to actually pay attention in order not to inadvertently link to them.

  3. Alun's avatar Alun | June 18, 2008 at 4:51 am |

    So if I start writing phrases like ‘President John McCain is waiting for iguanas.’ or ‘President Barack Obama was waiting for cantaloupes.’ does that mean that AP owe me money each time the excerpt the ‘President Barack Obama was waiting…’ bit? If checked their archives and they don’t appear there, so clearly they would be excerpting me.
    Have I just discovered a gold mine?

  4. Alun's avatar Alun | June 18, 2008 at 4:54 am |

    Thank god I spelled the important quotes correctly. That could have cost me serious money. It should be ‘they excerpt’ and ‘I’ve checked’ Note to self, leave ideas until you’ve woken up properly.

  5. Bill the Cat's avatar Bill the Cat | June 18, 2008 at 9:45 am |

    I suggest that every one who writes about anything in the news makes a practice of including a prominent note about pointedly not checking what AP has to say, now that the idiots in charge there are taking business advice from some dickhead lawyers.
    Keep printing that line again and again and people will eventually take it at face value. Which is good, because it seems to be true.

  6. ERV's avatar ERV | June 18, 2008 at 11:14 am |

    Bye AP! Dont let the door hit your ass on the way out! *waves bye-bye*

  7. Mr. Gunn's avatar Mr. Gunn | June 18, 2008 at 12:26 pm |

    Wait, don’t they have a damn RSS feed? What gives?

  8. mark's avatar mark | June 18, 2008 at 12:53 pm |

    Has some whacko self-proclaimed messiah bought out AP, now?

  9. QrazyQat's avatar QrazyQat | June 18, 2008 at 3:36 pm |

    It’s a cooperative of whacko self-proclaimed messiahs.