A number of folks are weighing in on the CJR story, Relax, Bloggers. The AP Isn't Out to Get You. I added my own comment which goes something like this...
At the risk of being sued by the AP I am going to link to a story from two weeks ago in which an AP business reporter asked me for comment on the new AP policy.
AP proposes new article formatting for the Web By ANDREW VANACORE (AP) – Jul 10, 2009
Given all the heat I and the Media Bloggers Assoc. got last year after we agreed to have our lawyers represent Rogers Cadenhead of Drudge Retort in his copyright disputed with AP (and successfully extricated him from their legal crosshairs) I was leery of being quoted by AP talking about a new AP program designed to address their concerns about copyright infringement.
When I asked to know more first I was sent the following press release.
Based on that press release I Googled for "microformats" to understand better what was being described in the press release. That led me here:
http://microformats.org/
After learning more about it I suggested that the AP reporter contact Dave Winer who would be about the best person I could think to comment on this topic given the overlapping issues involved. I gather that conversation did not take place.
What I did notice is that the AP initiative is tied to "Value Added News" which the press release described as "part of the transparency initiative, a joint project with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and his Centre for Web Science (the WSRI). The transparency initiative is funded through grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Knight Foundation." These are not people I generally associate with being luddites about the web or blogging and so that gave me my pause.
I am sure this will get my sued but here is the relevant passage from the AP story on itself:
Still, it is unclear exactly how publishers would use the extra information to enforce copyright terms. It's a touchy subject that has sometimes pitted news outlets and blogs against one another.
Robert Cox, president of Media Bloggers Association in New Rochelle, N.Y., said that tagging articles in general poses no threat to blogs, but that any copyright provisions will be viewed warily by sites that have already clashed with the AP.
In one case last year, the AP demanded blogger Rogers Cadenhead remove several postings that the AP claimed violated its terms of use. Other bloggers rallied behind Cadenhead, arguing his activity fell under the "fair use" provision of copyright law.
With any new proposal from the AP on copyright protections "the perception in the blogosphere is going to be that this is one more way for the AP to go to war," Cox said.
In other words, whatever merit there might be to the AP's approach, they are tone deaf when it comes to understanding how their actions will be perceived in the blogging/social media/citizen journalism space. So far the response has been entirely predictable and could likely have been avoided had people like Mr. Curley sought input from the very same people commenting here.
I will add one final note. In my experience, The New York Times is the least reliable source for these sorts of stories and so I would not accept any article they write or any quote they include in a story as accurate.
