On the writers forum, we’ve been having a discussion about Associated Press’s recent desire to charge when people are using quotes from AP
articles. Some people are blowing this a bit out of proportion and calling what AP is doing preposterous. Okay, so maybe it’s a bit silly, but I don’t think it’s wrong what they are doing.

First, it’s important to recognize that AP has ALWAYS had a strange policy where it came to copyright law, and in the interest of Fair Use, their policy often was too stringent, and on several occasions was shown to be unenforceable.

I’m pretty sure their recent desire to charge for quoting is going to be unenforceable too, but I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about my opinions on why I feel AP is doing this.

See, I agree with AP.

I know, I know.

But I am so sick of doing a search on the internet for something I’m interested in, and finding 52 blogs and sites like Associated Content, all quoting an AP article, and then having trouble finding the original article. I bet AP is sort of tired of that happening too, and thus, why they are now trying to stop it.

When writing news, a journalist uses ’sources’. These sources might be interviews they happened to get with folks, it could be research they did on their own, or it could be common knowledge/public domain information used to beef up a story. Whatever the source of the information is, the journalists who write for AP are required to get those sources and vet them too.

So, why is it fair that someone sitting on their arse at home on a computer can then take the hard work one AP journalist did in getting those sources and writing their articles and use that hard work to pad their own pocket by quoting AP? They shouldn’t be able to.

That’s my stand on it. They shouldn’t be able to.

I would be very upset if someone took my article that I spent hours writing, time researching, money for expenses to get the research… and then someone turned around and got more attention, better page views, and more money than I did by QUOTING my article.

It IS plagiarism, in that it’s using direct quotes (even with attribution, it’s still plagiarism) without permission. Fair Use allows a small portion to be quoted, as long as it meets certain criteria.

That means, if I write an opinion editorial about an article I read on the AP wire, and I quote the AP article only to provide my opinion commentary, I should be fine. But if I write a NEWS article, quoting an AP article, I have not only violated copyright, but I’ve stolen the ’sources’, so to speak.

Remember awhile back, Associated Content got this brilliantly boneheaded idea to call the writers on the site ’sources’? One of the reasons I hated that was the tagline they used, “Information from the source…”

See, AP is truly information from the source. They have freelance and staff journalists who go out and actually interview folks, go to the scene of a crime, go to the courthouse, research things, and write it up. The research is the source. The interview is the source. AP gives information from the source.

AC, on the other hand, almost always where news is concerned regurgitates information from someone else who got the information from the source. Very rarely where news is concerned on AC does someone truly do a researched news article from real sources.

Sure, you’re going to say, “AC doesn’t pay enough to do that much research for news!”

I agree with you. They don’t.

That means you have two choices: sell your real sourced news story to a real news wire or paper or don’t write news on AC that isn’t original research and sources.

It seems simple to me. Regurgitating someone else’s hard work doesn’t make you a journalist.

Citizen journalism doesn’t mean you rewrite other people’s hard work and articles. It means you research, source, observe and write about things yourself, when you’re not a professional journalist.

While I don’t think AP’s strategy to charge people for quoting them is going to work or be enforceable, I am on AP’s side on this one. If it does nothing more than get the word out to more bloggers that stealing content or copying and pasting portions of content without permission is ILLEGAL, it will have benefitted me too, what AP is proposing to do.

Keep in mind also, AP is not prohibiting you from referring to them as a source. They are merely not letting you use their quotes and research.

For example, I can say, “According to one AP article on the subject, prices are dwindling.” Totally paraphrased, my ’summary’ of what AP said, without quoting them at all. AND, you CAN still quote for commentary in opinion pieces.

So long rant/opinion of it is this: I don’t fault AP for what they are doing, and in many instance, I agree with their reasoning behind it. Still, doesn’t mean I think it’s going to be enforceable.

What do YOU think?

For more information, you can read the Mashable article on this topic by clicking here:

http://mashable.com/2009/08/02/associated-press/

Love and stuff,
Michy

PS: new meds make me loopy. Please excuse typos!

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