AP Sues Others For Copying Its Reporting, But Has No Problem Copying Bloggers Without Citation
from the can't-admit-the-bloggers-beat-you dept
You may have seen the story we recently had about a woman suing Google after she got hit by a car while following Google Maps' walking directions. In that post, we linked back to Danny Sullivan's post about this story at Search Engine Land (where he noted that Gary Price had tipped him off to the news). In our post, we recommended people read Danny's full writeup, highlighted some of the points he made and added a bit of our own analysis. Of course, it's a hot story, and so lots of other publications wrote up their own versions of it as well, and Danny is now pointing out that the vast majority of mainstream publications did not credit him at all with breaking the story -- some of whom even used the images that Sullivan created in their own stories without credit.Of course, the one I find most interesting is the Associated Press. The story published by the AP basically repeats a lot of what Danny put in his report, but fails to mention that Danny had the story first, and did a lot of the journalistic legwork in understanding what the story was about. Now, I've gone over this issue before in the past: and I don't see any legal reason why others should be required to cite their sources, but do believe it's the neighborly thing to do, and tends to lead to goodwill back in your direction as well.
But, when we're talking about the AP, this is an organization that has sent DMCA notices and threatened a blogger with legal action for linking to AP stories along with a headline and a short (35 word) excerpt. This is the organization that has claimed it was planning to sue others for creating similar stories and specifically sued All Headline News for supposedly rewriting its stories. This is also the same AP that thinks it gets to define fair use, and that means that any use of 5 words or more is not fair use. This is the same AP that claims that creating an entirely new artistic work based on an AP photograph is, in no way, fair use.
Yet, this AP has no problem making use of Danny's original reporting, without even so much as giving him credit?
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Filed Under: bloggers, copying, hot news, journalists
Companies: associated press
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some of whom even used the images that Sullivan created
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Re: some of whom even used the images that Sullivan created
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Then he needs to sue as well.
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Re:
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Re: Re:I keep hoping for a sort-of legal Armageddon where all sides fire off all of their lawyers at once creating some sort of situation that goes to the supreme court where this crap is decided once and for all. But I think my wait is in vain.
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Just a question
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Yet, this AP has no problem making use of Danny's original reporting, without even so much as giving him credit?
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Also, would the EFF take the case?
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Re:
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Hey Trust Fund Mikey,
Runnin' out of monay?
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Re: Hey Trust Fund Mikey,
Oh I get it, you're either TAM or you're impersonating TAM to make fun of him. Nice.
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Re: Re: Hey Trust Fund Mikey,
To learn more about pricing and features, including the famous "Anonymous Coward" posting feature, visit online at YangCo.com
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Re: Re: Re: Hey Trust Fund Mikey,
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Re: Hey Trust Fund Mikey,
It's true. We can create mass from energy.
Drugs are still bad.
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Time to Push AP
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Re: Time to Push AP
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They better hope Hot News doesn't get enacted
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Re: They better hope Hot News doesn't get enacted
Come to think of it, how would they define a news agency? Maybe a combination of circulation, number of years in business, tons of newsprint and height of office building? They'd want to include some radio stations but exclude college newspapers, without coming out and saying it... Man, being a lawyer must be hard.
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Associated Pressure
Try telling the truth. Try telling the whole story. Try doing good for the human race, instead of championing corporate greed.
Did you think all your bullshit would go unnoticed, AP, in the era of the internet, when EVERYTHING can be fact-and source-checked in nothing flat?
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