Associated Press is even dumber than we initially thought!

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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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.

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?

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.

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.

By Bill the Cat (not verified) on 18 Jun 2008 #permalink

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

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