AP Finally Launches NewsRight... And It's Righthaven Lite?
from the really? dept
A few years back, the Associated Press announced plans to try to DRM the news, with an announcement that was mostly astounding for its technical cluelessness. It took nearly three years, but the project (now officially spun off from the AP -- who is still the largest shareholder) has been announced as "NewsRight," and is being described as an attempt to get bloggers and aggregators to pay up for "profiting" off the work of the AP or the other newspaper partners of NewsRight (including the NYT, McClatchy and others). Of course, the devil is in the details, and no matter how many details I read, this whole thing still doesn't make any sense at all.At best, it appears to be Righthaven Lite. It doesn't sound like they'll totally pull a Righthaven, where their first move is to sue, but rather (from the various vague descriptions) it sounds like NewsRight will be going around simply trying to get blogs and aggregators to buy a license. But here's the thing: on what legal basis? That's the part that's not clear. Much of what blogs and newspapers do is simply not infringing (even if the AP likes to pretend it is). There may be some extreme cases where there is infringement, but most standard cases seem like classic fair use. And that's where it gets worrisome that this turns into a legal shakedown -- whereby sites are pressured to pay up just to avoid a legal fight, no matter how strong the legal position of these sites might be.
But, much more to the point, nothing in this plan appears to be about adding value. That's the key way to determine if a business model is heading in the right direction, or if it's really just someone trying to "free ride" on the work of someone else. NewsRight appears to be the worst kind of free rider, honestly. They're not adding any value -- they're just demanding people pay up to avoid a negative cost (the legal threat). Also telling? The company admits that half the staff is... lawyers, and that appears to include the company's CEO. When your 11-person company employs multiple full-time lawyers, you're not innovating. You're abusing the law. This seems like a complete disaster in the making -- and not because "information wants to be free." But because NewsRight doesn't appear to provide anything of actual value to sites. All it does is carry a big stick around and say, "pay us if you don't want to get whacked." I'm sure some sites will pay, but it's difficult to see how this adds anything of value to the world.
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Filed Under: aggregators, bloggers, journalism
Companies: associated press, newsright
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If AP wants bloggers and others to pay up, then the bloggers and others will probably just ignore AP. There are plenty of other news sites.
I wonder how long it will take AP to start suing people for ignoring them. Or, how long it will be before bloggers and other news sources expect AP to pay up on the same terms that AP is demanding.
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What's this all about?
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Re: What's this all about?
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Ftfy
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its the american way.
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EU worse
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Re: EU worse
The main reason we British watch what happens in the US is to see what stupid laws our own politicians are planning to create next. They see what you do and then either on their own or by pressure try and do the same things here.
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Guerilla warfare - They can't defend a hundred lawsuits
Just fight them and make this unprofitable for them
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"Hot news"
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Proposal:
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Another Proposal:
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I think this will become entertaining as we have seen AP lifting content from others wholesale.
Given AP demanding there be a system that benefits only them, the law will take a dim view of them pretending it doesn't actually say that when they are the defendants.
Like the MPAA/RIAA who violate the same laws they demand are needed.
Are corporations really this myopic to think that when you can see it to someone else, it will never happen to you?
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They are the middle men, of the middle men.
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Sue first, ask questions later. -- Righthaven.
> Are corporations really this myopic . . . ?
Yes.
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NewsRighthaven?
Understandably, taking full articles is another matter, but sending valuable traffic via an opening dek from millions of blogs should clearly be fair use.
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Re: NewsRighthaven?
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Politician doesn't like the other partys view point...its now easily solvable, contact AP friend, AP friend gets content pulled cause its 'copyrighted without a license'. Court battle may happen but by that time, it doesn't matter...
With unlimited finances, and censorship ability, we got our self a nice little banana republic in the making. We will make china so proud.
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Legal grounds.
Well on the basis that the $500 license will be cheaper than a court case for most. Doubly so if you include missed work and travel expenses.
Your standard "legal blackmail" tactic.
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Sigh...
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Re: Sigh...
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Already done, more or less. Someone else already owns the Sun. Maybe you can get a users license for a nominal fee... or prepare to be sued!
Spanish woman claims she owns the sun - and now plans to start charging ALL users
Perhaps she needs to work on her "intent to occupy" portion of it first. Someone should start a collection to get her launched to her new dwelling as soon as possible.
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Someone has claimed this:
Woman Claims Legal Loophole Means She Now Owns The Sun... And She Wants You To Pay Up
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AP business model is dead
Today it serves no purpose, the Internet can distribute news much better than the AP ever could.
This legal strategy will fail, soon after so will the AP and good riddence.
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Re: AP business model is dead
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Director rapes Kim Novak LoL
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16482624
That because the director of the movie The Artist (2011) dared to make a homage to Alfred Hitchcock, by using scores from the movie Vertigo (1958)
That right there is why no artist should ever ever have a say on how things are used after it is released to the world.
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They're completely clueless
My biggest question-how many writers, and how much enhancement, could the Bee alone have benefitted from with the $300,000 that McClatchy is already committed to spending on this fiasco in the making?
I asked the same thing in the comments section of the Bee. In fact, I did so two days in a row, since for some reason the operators of the Bee's website saw fit to delete the long list of negative comments on this story for at least 3 days in a row...
The people in the executive suite at the corner of 21st and P Streets in downtown Sacramento need to go back to the business school they supposedly graduated from and either ask for their money back or re-take a few economics classes.
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Facepalm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ap-nytimes-mcclatchy-others-launch-newsright-online- rights-clearinghouse/2012/01/05/gIQAgBwxcP_story.html
which says:
"Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed."
And then immediately underneath this statement are a selection of social media sharing buttons to "redistribute" the content to your friends on Facebook, Twitter etc...
HA
:)
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That prevents linking to infringing material. Google would become a nice safe place instead of the rogue web site it is now.
If nobody can legally provide hyperlinks to infringing material then no infringement will be possible. All piracy will be instantly stopped. It will be impossible to download infringing content if nobody can post a hyperlink to it.
Similarly, if we made it illegal to tell anyone where to buy illegal drugs, then the war on drugs would instantly be over and done.
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