The controversy over the Associated Press trying to create its own rules about bloggers quoting from its headlines and articles, above what the law already provides, is now a news story in England. In the video above, Sky News interviews TechCrunch UK editor Mike Butcher about the imbroglio. He points out that as long as bloggers use excerpts and link back to the original article, the law is on their side and the AP is in the wrong. Of course, we’ve already banned the AP from TechCrunch, and Mike keeps arguing with the NYT about its misguided support for the AP’s position
Some choice Butcherisms from the interview:
This is a huge banana skin they’ve slipped on.
It is impossible to control what happens on the Internet. It is a little bit like saying everyone should walk a certain way around London. It is absolutely pointless.
The Internet, some might say, is one big photocopying machine. But legitimate Websites will really just quote and link back. And it is up to mainstream media organizations to deal with the fact that this is going to happen and wake up to the new reality.
This people making decisions (at AP) that got their E-mails printed for the last ten years by their team of secretaries.
“It is a little bit like saying everyone should walk a certain way around London.”
I drove into London at Kings Cross one fine day in late 2006. When I got back home the rental car company sent me a ticket saying I had not paid some congestion fee and the ticket had a photo of my rental car license plate taken from the road.
If anybody could muzzle people it would be the British.
No longer a “subject” of the British Empire – Chris
After claming that “links” are the lifeblood of the Internet, this part hits the nail right on the freaking head. Excellently put… beautiful:
“The game has changed a bit. Many bloggers now ‘break news’ which Associate Press and other mainstream media organizations can’t get a handle on. Our own site – TechCrunch – often breaks stories WAY ahead of the mainstream press. So, who is copying who here?
Most of the time you’ll find sites like us linking to major media sites if they break a story. But you won’t get a link back. So exactly, uh, what is their beef?”
Hi Erik,
Would be helpful if you and Mike would consider posting a request that AP’s reporting and NYTimes blogging correct the incorrect things they’ve said, that the Media Bloggers Association is asking to negotiate a policy for bloggers and quoting with the AP. That is not true.
In fact, MBA is only negotiating for Rogers Cadenhead and his 7 C&Ds today in their meeting with AP.
More detail here in my post where I ask for a retraction:
http://napsteri...ves/000704.html
One other thing, Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen, O
Willis, Rebecca MacKinnon and Micah Sifry are founding members of the Media Bloggers Association.
They are vouching for them today. I don’t know the MBA at all and don’t remember their founding at the November 2004 Bloggercon where Dave Winer says it started.
But I think we should find out more before slamming them, esp. in light of the complete misreporting by AP and misinterpretation by NYT of the story that MBA was negotiating a policy in the first place.
mary
Top banana, mbites
As Butcher says, legitimate websites will quote and link back – but by AP making a stand, I think *more* bloggers will recognize their responsibility and do the same.
Its just like RIAA suing people for illegal downloads – its not useless, because I know myself and a lot of other people have stopped downloading music because of it and switched to legit services like iTunes. Also, they get to recoup a fraction of whats been stolen from them – well within their right.
Tech folks love to say the old media doesn’t understand the new media, but in this case I think the AP has made a clear statement to bloggers which has already drawn massive attention to the problem and that the impact of “article theives” is not an invisible victimless crime – AP is paying attention.
I thought companies like Attributor had helped them manage this kind of problem.
ya people making decisions
My favorite part: when he said ‘Media’ …… MediaR
My least favorite part: I was hoping that when he said Banana it would come out BananaR, but he didn’t.
Overall, I love to see traditionals squirm, because they forgot to evolve.
comeon guys… bloggers have operated way too long in the grey light, stealing other people’s work, without linking back.
It’s ethical wrong and trying to defend this practice or hiding behind some legal loopholes won’t get you anywhere.
Be a man, fess up and do the right thing. Give credit where credit is due, link back if you need, and don’t use AP stuff without proper credit/payment. As simple as that. Be a man not a wimp.
You guys need to understand that a trained paid journalist is not the same as a self proclaimed blogger. There are major differences and the reason we are where we are today in this country is partly because bloggers like you haven’t realized this yet.
So be a man recognize their work rather then the weasling cheating stealing of information that bloggers have been doing.
Imagine a world where everyone just copies each other stuff but no professionals to create content… we have been going there the past decade… and if this keeps going there… you will be the ones paying the price.
Quoting and stating the source should be enough, no link back necessary. As #3 stated, they certainly aren’t going to link to anyone, so why should bloggers or other sources.
When was the last time your local newspaper put a link to AP for one of their stories? Of course, none. They do state the source so that should be the benchmark.
sometimes i wish i had a british accent. it really doesn’t even matter what you say, it just sounds cool.
Mike, really? Your UK counterpart kind of seems like a British Chandler Bing to me.
Only one thing to say… the AP people are completely nuts!
Next thing you know, they`ll want us to pay a monthly fee to quote any of their articles.
Well done mr butcher
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what bills AP is sending to Google (News)?
Hey, jimbo.
Its not about stealing work – people definitely should not be doing that.
What they are saying is that you can only use a very tiny part of their text. Which is fine by me, I had some fun at their expense in my story.
If you can’t quote anything of theirs, then people will just stop commenting on their stories and comment on other work instead. Then the lawyers at AP will be happy – and we just live to make those guys happy. More power to them, let them destroy the business.
Seth – they really do not understand and this is not a knee-jerk thing, they’ve been doing this for some time, they move slower than snails.
What AP has not released is this scoop…so I will not hold them at ill
for sharing this important headline with their readers:
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The unique thing that AP will earn from it, is that all bloggers around the world will vanish their comments from then… and I think the AP web sites will have a huge Google and other Serps access diminished… and I think they will also lost a very good revenue along with it.