Michelle Malkin » Hey, Associated Press: You owe me at least $132,125!

Hey, Associated Press: You owe me at least $132,125!

By Michelle Malkin • June 17, 2008 10:37 PM

The Internet firestorm over the Associated Press’s heavy-handed attempt to bully bloggers over fair use article excerpts has been absolutely schadenfreude-licious. Now, it’s time to turn the tables. If your blog or blog commenters have ever been quoted by the AP, listen up: It’s time to prepare a bill and demand payment.

First, a quick recap: AP showered a left-wing site with cease-and-desist letters, prompting many political and tech sites to boycott AP content. The latest uproar involves the AP’s pricing scheme charging bloggers $2.50/word and then scaling for excerpt usage. Here’s a screenshot of the media giant’s web usage agreement:

So they wanna play that game?

Ok, let’s play. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course. Unlike the AP, bloggers appreciate getting linked and excerpted. That is how we roll in the 21st century.

But let’s apply AP standards for the hell of it. I have found two recent examples of the AP quoting from this blog without linking to the quoted posts or obtaining my consent for a usage agreement. In April, AP quoted from the comment thread in this post about Absolut’s Aztlan vodka ad:

More than a dozen calls to boycott Absolut were posted on michellemalkin.com, a Web site operated by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin. The ads sparked heated comment on a half-dozen other Internet sites and blogs.

“In an Absolut world, a company that produces vodka fires its entire marketing department in a desperate attempt to win back enraged North American customers after a disastrous ad campaign backfires,” a person using the moniker “SalsaNChips” wrote on Malkin’s Web site.

That’s 42 words. Cha-ching-ching-ching.

In May, AP again quoted from this blog, excerpting the column I posted online about the keffiyeh kerfuffle:

The kaffiyeh, Malkin wrote in a column posted online last Friday, “has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.”

That’s 44 words. Cha-ching-ching-ching.

According to the AP, it has:

-1,700 U.S. daily, weekly, non-English and college newspapers;

-5,000 radio and television outlets taking AP services; and

- 850 AP Radio News audio affiliates.

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that half of all those clients published the AP dispatches quoting this blog’s content without prior usage agreement (which would be 3,775) and let’s apply the exact same fee structure AP wants to impose on the blogosphere ($17.50 for 26-50 words). I calculate that the AP owes me:

$66,062.50 x 2 = $132,125.

(A substantial portion of that sum would go to commenter SalsaNChips, of course. See? Commenting at MichelleMalkin.com pays! Well, theoretically.)

There may be other articles that quoted blog content from MichelleMalkin.com and HotAir.com. I’m keeping a look out.

And there are a few other bloggers quoted recently by AP who should consider sending joke bills, too.

Take Patterico, whose enterprising work on the Judge Kozinski case I mentioned this morning. The AP quoted from one of his blog posts just yesterday. Sample:

A federal appeals court judge under scrutiny for sexually explicit videos and photos posted on a personal Web site is the victim of distortions and “outright lies” published by the Los Angeles Times, his wife charged Monday.
Marcy Jane Tiffany, wife of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, described some of the material stored on the home computer as raunchy and juvenile. Only about a half-dozen files among hundreds had a “sexual aspect,” but they were not pornography, she said.

“Alex is not into porn — he is into funny — and sometimes funny has a sexual character,” Tiffany wrote in a nearly 2,000-word defense of her husband, posted on a Web site called patterico.com.

And it goes on. Writes Patterico tonight:

In a news item about the e-mail from Judge Kozinski’s wife that I posted on this site, an AP article lifted numerous passages.

I counted 154 words quoted from my post. That’s almost twice the number of words contained in the most extensive quotation in the Drudge Retort.

So am I going to be an ass and threaten to charge them, or sue them, or demand that they remove the quotes? Of course not. They benefited from my content and I benefited from their link.

If he did decide to send a bill under the terms of my table-turning fee structure, that would be:

$50 per URL= 3,775 x $50=$188,750.

Dude. That’s a hefty windfall. Sure you don’t wanna reconsider?

More potential blogger debt collectors:

*The Stranger blog
*Actress/blogger Zhang Ziyi
*The Huffington Post
*Musician/blogger Pete Wentz
*A blogger at Glamocracy
*An American Idol fan blogger

If your blog content/comment threads have been quoted by the AP, let me know what your bill would be. If you’d like to design/photoshop a generic joke bill or AP usage agreement plan that we can fill in and send to AP, please feel free to send along!

MSM thuggery is the disease. Mockery is the best medicine.

***

The blogosphere lets it rip:

From Jim Lynch: “Going beyond what has already been reported, the AP has expanded their current position and announced that they now own the rights to all words, phrases and letters of the alphabet, and will be charging bloggers accordingly.” Triple-snort!

Ace of Spades: “Here’s my counter-offer: I will limit the the words actually quoted from AP stories, limiting myself to paraphrase and direct quotes of relevant officials. (AP can’t copyright someone else’s words — at best, they can pitch an unfair trade practices beef, but that’s a harder case to make.) Furthermore, I will no longer provide any links to any AP stories anywhere, and in fact may not even bother to mention the story comes from AP. I will cite instead a “news organization.” If AP wants a link, it can begin paying me $25.00 per link. I charge for advertising. There’s my counter-offer. It’s not negotiable.”

DoublePlusUndead: Fun with ellipses!

Charles Johnson: “If they plan to enforce this mind-bogglingly stupid policy, it will be interesting to see what happens with sites like Digg.com — which are nothing but excerpts from news articles, with hundreds of AP stories being posted every day.”

Via Brian at Snapped Shot, who has been entangled in his own blogger battle with AP:

AP has managed to bring left and right bloggers together like never before. Check out Memeorandum:

Macsmind’s tab: $6,300.

Sticky Notes devises a handy quote-a-meter to help you calculate how much you’ll owe AP if you excerpt them. Still looking for someone to make one of these for AP to calculate how much they owe us.

Bob Owens: Where’s my fact-checking fee? Har.

Posted in: Blogosphere, New York Times

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« Older Comments

#353219

On June 18th, 2008 at 12:03 pm, in_awe said:

Now, if only I could get the Orange County Register to stop printing AP stories I’d be a happy man…
#353265

On June 18th, 2008 at 12:38 pm, Southpaw said:

AP = Absurb Position

In a related bit of Internet dumbness, I had a domain name registerd from the early years of the internet. When time came to renew the name, the domain registration company sent the notice to the wrong address. I didn’t notice and the registration expired.
The name was immediately snatched up by a company (Russians, I think) and warehoused. The wanted me to pay $500 to get the name back. I refused and simply changed my domain name from .com to .net, heh heh. They still have to pay to warehouse the .com name, idiots.

I think a new extension should be created for people like that and the AP: .stu(pid)
BTW, I now own the copyright to .stu(pid), please send all checks to my account in Nigeria.
#353382

On June 18th, 2008 at 2:07 pm, right_on said:

Just when the Marxist idiologues make it in to Upper Management, the blog sites “steal” their thunder…DOH!!!

Someone, hit the panic button!!! “Why, we get paid to propagandize…bloggers don’t!!! This isn’t fair!! I know…let’s charge them a fee for quoting our production! Yeah…yeah! That’s the ticket!”

Did AP cover the MoveOn(little doggies).org flap regarding the use of their logo? Have they learned nothing?

Hey…AP…”here’s your sign.” (I hope I’m not charged for using that phrase!)
#353384

On June 18th, 2008 at 2:08 pm, mom2jack said:

AP= ~~Absolute~~ Absolutely ~~Priceless~~ Pathetic.

There, that’s better.

I’ve copywrited barking, tre, so, you just be careful!

As a copywriter, I think you mean copyrighted
#353420

On June 18th, 2008 at 2:28 pm, Barry F. said:

Bob Owens: Where’s my fact-checking fee? Har.

Obviously, Bob wants to see the MSM go belly-up.
#353474

On June 18th, 2008 at 3:01 pm, Tantor said:

I’ve just copyrighted the phrase “Leave a comment.” All of you commenters now owe me 85 cents apiece. I’m letting you off easy because you’re fellow Michelle Malkin readers. However, over at Daily Kos, I’m gonna skin the commenters there.
#353612

On June 18th, 2008 at 4:37 pm, The Tick said:

Absolutely brilliant. There’s nothing like putting the shoe on the other foot to make a point.
#353681

On June 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm, diaphanous said:

Send them a bill, Michelle!

AP – Always Pointless
#353722

On June 18th, 2008 at 6:48 pm, emjem24 said:

Is there anything that AP reports worth “quoting” or using?

Does AP know that stealing intellectual property (especially that of bloggers) is a no no?

When will AP own up to the reality that bloggers are reporting on the stories (and doing AP’s job) that they’re not doing?

You bet, Michelle… start sending a bill…. can you cut the check between all of us commenters too?
#353763

On June 18th, 2008 at 7:47 pm, Soliel said:

Man, they sure know how to ruin the fun.
#353765

On June 18th, 2008 at 7:54 pm, AlohaGuy said:

I have copyrighted the phrase “self-hating”, and am willing to license it to MM. Dudette, we’ll both be gnarley rich.
#353766

On June 18th, 2008 at 7:55 pm, Michael said:

While I appreciate the attampts at humor from all the commentors above who want a crack at Michelle’s money, this “new tone” by AP opens up many a can of worms.

For starters, what if Michelle writes a newspaper column that takes a quote from an AP story and decides to place a reprint of it on this site? Would “fair use” in the print media overrule the payment due for the blog post? How about if Michelle uses the quote on FOX News?

On another front, as a dittohead I know Rush Limbaugh has quoted extensively from AP stories, again under “fair use”. Will the AP send him a bill if he reprints a transcript of the monologue on his website?

These questions definitely don’t seem to be covered because many of the major players in the blogosphere are also employed as providers in other areas of media; Malkin and Limbaugh are just two examples of this cross-medium phenomenon.

Obviously, I toil with a much smaller sphere of influence but this decision by the AP could affect me even more. For example, my local paper has been known to do “hybrid” stories where the hometown reporter adds items to an AP story that detail a local angle of some sort. If I take the quote from a local paper on such a story, would I still be liable to the AP?

Another question arises on simply linking to a story without quotation. You’re still using the story to make an argument, so in theory either one of two outcomes is possible: there’s no charge because you’re not directly quoting from the story; or, you’d be charged for every word even if you only cared about a couple sentences. I can only guess which way the AP would decide on that question.

Michelle properly notes that bloggers like me enjoy being linked – in my case, I also crosspost on occasion between three other websites, Elbert’s (#22) happens to be one of them. Would liability fall equally among all crossposted blogsites or just on the originating site, and how would they know which site originated the post? As another example, I can post to Red Maryland first then come back to my home site, or vice versa.

I know the AP is looking to fatten their bottom line and perhaps control the dissemination of their information. But I think fair use is fair use regardless of the reprinting media. When I cite a story as part of a post, I give credit to both the source and the writer (e.g. a Baltimore Sun story by Mary Gail Hare). Conversely, if people wish to link to my site all I ask is credit and the link back to the post.

We may be seeing the opening salvo of a new war between the “drive-by” media and the “pajamas” media, with the strategy being one of attrition through deeper pockets. Fortunately, I have enough news sources who are practically begging me to get their word out that I can do my work but some others may have a difficult time keeping on the straight and narrow.
#353820

On June 18th, 2008 at 8:54 pm, conservativeindian said:

ok, guys I just copyrighted “LOL”.

#39

On June 18th, 2008 at 7:03 am, Die Hippie, Die said:
We could call it the FREEDOM ACTION GROUP!
Bad idea. The Film Actors Group has dibs on the acronym.

How about “Freedom From crAP”
#353840

On June 18th, 2008 at 9:15 pm, Blind_Mule said:

Ok I have gotten here late but if it involves PS I’m in so here is my contribution
#353851

On June 18th, 2008 at 9:23 pm, Blind_Mule said:

Thats the wrong one this is the finished one, sorry.
#353938

On June 19th, 2008 at 12:07 am, meatpieandtatters said:

AP=Appallingly Pathetic

Or perhaps, considering their pickitudiness on errant copy hunting: AP=AnalProbers?
#353962

On June 19th, 2008 at 1:40 am, Christian Soldier said:

# 39 DHD
OK –How much do you owe me for :

We could call it the FREEDOM ACTION GROUP
taken from my post # 6…

Ok-I’ll share

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“Insufficient tuned-in-ness.”

Who said it: “The real story to all this is how these myriad entities allow them to shuffle money around so much that no one really knows what’s getting spent on what.”

Categories: Blogosphere, New York Times