No Surprise Here: Pirate Bay Acquisition Falling Apart

The AP Not So Happy About Reporting Restrictions When It Goes In The Other Direction

from the good-for-us,-not-for-them dept

Fri, Aug 21st 2009 2:40pm — Mike Masnick

Well, this is amusing. Remember how the AP is trying to limit how others can report on or make use of AP news? Right. Hold that thought. Now remember how the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is trying to restrict how both the fans and reporters can report on games? Well, you know what's coming next. Stephen points out that the AP is now protesting the SEC's policies. Apparently, the AP is only a fan of such reporting restrictions when it impacts others rather than themselves. The full letter (pdf) sent to the SEC by the AP and some other reporting groups takes issue with many of the restrictions, and apparently doesn't notice the irony in the fact that the AP is trying to restrict others in much the same way.

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Filed Under: reporting, restrictions, sec
Companies: associated press

11 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 3:03pm

There is no irony, no contradictions. It's all consistent. All you have to do is assume the AP is self interested and all contradictions disappear.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 3:41pm

Re:
Of course they're self-interested, although their restrictions are obviously not beneficial to themselves. However, they do at least try to justify their actions with logic, and there is a pretty substantial contradiction there.
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bigpicture, 21 Aug 2009 @ 4:00pm

Re: Re: contradictions
Suicide probably seems logical to the ones participating in it, but not so for most others.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 4:09pm

If this loonacy continues...
the AP may have to work on something to keep their reporters. Surely the reporters who contribute to the AP won't stand for this. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. But sadly, the AP may soon have to resort to similar tactics used by questionable timeshare dealers-- promises of week long vacations and spa getaways in return for presentations and indoctrination on how DRM is going to spread news faster, sell more papers, and be welcomed with open arms by customers.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 4:44pm

Re:
Is it just me or does anyone else think that the AP is probably like a group of like 3 or 4 people, who, until recently, laughed all the way to the bank on how they bulldog'ed the entire news industry...?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 5:16pm

Those AP parasites! Stealing the news from the poor... SEC...thing.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 6:03pm

Re: Re:
"although their restrictions are obviously not beneficial to themselves. "

Sure, now convince them of this.
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Obi-Wan, 21 Aug 2009 @ 7:19pm

Re:
*waves hand*

These aren't the contradictions your looking for.

The AP can go about its business.

Move along.
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senshikaze (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 8:45pm

Take that!
I am not sure whether to weep or laugh.
Im going to go for 2 until i do 1.
This is pretty sad all around. Really both should be beaten by consumers.
And I am a consumer of the SEC
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I ought to register a username (profile), 22 Aug 2009 @ 9:00am

Implosion imminent?
Seems like the AP is just making itself more and more irrelevant. I found an interesting perspective from Jay Garmon over at The Written Weird: I want a newspaper that DOESN'T include AP content.

Not directly related to this particular instance of the AP's shennanigans, Jay says, "Thankfully, once the AP's DRM kicks in, I'll have a nice, simple way to screen out all the endlessly duplicated AP clone-stories from my feeds and get the actual analysis and opinion about the sports -- and other subjects -- I truly care about."

Hm.
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Hephaestus (profile), 22 Aug 2009 @ 11:47pm

Open and almost free offer to ALL news org that use the AP....
"Almost free" means you need your own hardware and I will put together the software....

The offer is simple I will remove all AP charges from your books by making them superfluous (serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being). What I need is the following....

What does the AP do for you?
Who are the other news orgs that subscribe?
What are the contractual agreements with other news orgs?
How much are you being charged by AP?

Simply put AP is no longer needed and can be replaced by technology.
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