Associated Press to Charge For Quoting Articles Online
Posted: Monday, August 03, 2009
by Rob Trahan
SearchWarp.com
Quoting and linking has become common practice online. You can peruse any blog today and find snippets of someone else's work along with a link to the work. Until recently there have been no worries of copyright repercussions.
If the Associated Press has its way, there will.
The AP, for those who do not know, is the largest US source of syndicated news. If you're reading, watching, listening to a news story, there's a good chance the AP had something to do with it. If you use a news aggregator, the majority of the articles listed are from the AP. It's huge.
You read that correctly. If you quote 5 words from an AP article, you will be charged $12.50. The price rises with the word count, up to $100 for 250 words or more. And it doesn't just apply to those obtaining permission and quoting legitimately. If you copy and paste from an AP article and they find out, they will send you a bill. And they will expect to be paid in full.
The Mashable post goes on to debate the merits of the AP's plan, and you are welcome to in the comments if you'd like. This article is simply a reminder that all online content is owned by someone and different owners treat their property differently. When quoting or copying material, be sure to obtain permission from the author first and always cite your source.
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)hi rob,ah, sounds scary.i think "enough already" i was thinking along these lines the other day, about soap operas....they are on 3 separate times a day, and 5 episodes (the whole week's worth) on saturday. now, do those actors get paid everytime they appear onscreen?if i was quoted, i'd be proud, and i don't have time for bickering with people about whether i should get paid or not.now, i tried to send this to your e mail listed, but it came back twice, so here it is:hi rob,i was just all over teresa's website. what a great job you did.it is crisp, smart, professional yet approachable, and the information will surely put all her eggs in one basket now.i just wanted to tell you how much i liked it, and that i was impressed.the font is about one size too small for thes failing eyes, but that's not the case with everyone.you should be very proud of yourself. i hope you get tons of business from her mentioning you.innovative is the word i was trying to think of.really, really good job,my best regards,sueSue, yes, yes and yes on your AP comment. And thank you for the kind words about Teresa's site. Although, to be fair, I didn't do the bulk of the design for her site, just helped her get set up. Not that I can't design Web sites ... so you should tell all of your friends!i will certainly do that.
Rob, I'd reply to your article, but I'm afraid I'd inadvertently quote five words from an AP story and get a bill for it...oh, what the heck...good job and thanks for letting us know! (I'll send you the bill when I get it.)Danny, that'll be $44.75.
Great subject to bring up and thanks for doing so. I thought that all online content, once put on line it is generally the property of all, unless you copyright it. And then it is really very hard to effectively enforce the copyright unless it is on a large scale and repeated often. Interesting topic to follow. Thanks.
Steve, it would be easier if it worked that way. But according to copyright law, as soon as something is created it becomes the property of its creator, regardless of how it is distributed (and regardless of whether the owner applies for an official copyright). What's bizarre about the AP's stance is that they do not care about the application of the quote. Even if you quote an article of theirs to drive people to read the actual article, they still want money from you.Thanks for the info, I had no clue!
I happened to notice an article on Open Salon which 'started me off'. Since I can't give you my article link I'll just tell you I have more particulars at My Opera under 'Bloggers and Associated Press.'
Litigation run amok. There are plenty of other news sources out there, fortunately, to quote from for free. For this, AP should become known as "Absolutely Preposterous."
This shouldn't affect me very much. I rarely quote anything in my blog posts or articles. That's because I consider myself the ultimate authority on most of the topics that I write about . :-)
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