Quoting from the Associated Press ...

... will cost you! Too much is ported from one site to another without due regard to copyright. Not any more! Associated Press are charging $2.50 per word:

http://mashable.com/2009/08/02/associated-press/

The AP needs a lesson in "fair use". This plan has epic FAIL written all over it.

Fair use can be as little as five words if you've captured the heart of the story, making it unnecessary for readers to go to the story itself.

I agree it has epic fail on it only because enforcement will be so difficult. That doesn't detract from its goal, which I perceive as an effort to get bloggers to stop ripping them off. People are now conditioned to take any and all copyrighted material that they want for free, and when the owners complain, they're derided as being "archaic," "old-school," and "not being in step with modern social networking."

Exactly, LC! I found the above link after reading in the Autumn edition of the ALCS (Authors Lending and Collecting Society) magazine that authors who try to protect published works are seen to be infringing other people's "right" to do whatever they like with it. Author, Joan Smith, says that the Internet has evolved to the stage where freedom of expression means freedom of use and authors should stop making such a fuss about their rights to their own work.

Shelagh wrote:

Author, Joan Smith, says that the Internet has evolved to the stage where freedom of expression means freedom of use and authors should stop making such a fuss about their rights to their own work.

An author wrote that? I wonder just what this "author" writes, that she is so cavalier about intellectual property theft. Must not be anything anyone will pay for.

I've been reading a lot about the open-source textbook movement. Most of the blogs and websites railing about textbook prices are just fraught with ignorance. A common theme in them all is that "someone" needs to step up and write quality texts for students to download free. I don't see any of these people offering to mow the lawns or clean the houses of the people they want to provide them with free books.

None of these people seem to have a problem with spending thousands of dollars on tatts, concert tickets, beer and pizza, I bet.

My error, LC. I was trying so hard to not quote the author verbatim, I made it sound as though she thought authors should stop making a fuss. In fact, she said that Internet users feel they have a right to use information any way they like and authors should not make a fuss about it.

Sorry about that!

Oh, ok, I like her better now. lol

AP is right and they have the muscle to enforce it. Newspapers, radio and TV stations pay a healthy fee to subscribe to their service so why should some jerk think he has a right to use it for free?