Burning Atlanta

Illegal aliens, politics, comments, rants, etc..

2008/3/16

Bloggers Beware. AP is out to sue you.

@ 07:20 PM (1 month, 27 days ago)

I know a little, very little, about "fair use." I've read about a few cases and the line isn't very clearly drawn. Basically, you can't profit from other people's property, including the written word. AP seems to want and take that to a different level, that you can't use any of their "property" unless you pay. Humm. Another battle for the courts. I've heard some news groups are bigger hard-asses than others. I don't know.

I've limited myself to quoting bits of an article for comment and avoid totally copying an article. Also, I always give a link. Plus I'm not profiting in anyway from this site except as a , hopefully, informational outlet. And it gives me a chance to bash weasels, one of my favorite pasttimes.  So, I only "profit" emotionally. *S* If I had ten times the hits I'd consider going a little commercial but I know I'd have to play by a different set of rules.

Anyway, a blogger is being threatened and I think it sucks. This is from a site talking about it. I'll give another link in a second.

Patterico's Pontifications.

Brian Ledbetter republishes AP photos to criticize the AP, without making money, and he gets threatened with a copyright lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Ashley Alexandra Dupre has equally copyrighted photos of herself on her website — photos that no doubt would have netted her considerable cash had she been paid for reproduction rights — and those photos are taken and reproduced without permission by (among many others) . . . the AP. Which (unlike Ledbetter) no doubt made significant money from the photos’ redistribution, as they were clearly in high demand.

You might think that Ledbetter has noticed the irony — and indeed, he has.

I think Ledbetter and other bloggers have a much better fair use argument for repoducing AP photos when relevant to a story than the AP has for this use of Dupre’s photos. Who do you think has the better argument that their use does not diminish the market for the image? Yeah, me too.

But in reality, it seems the limits of fair use are determined, not by concepts like permission, market diminishment, and newsworthiness, but rather by who has the highest-priced lawyers.

I guess that makes fair use like a lot of other things in our society.

Brian Ledbetter's  There's a copy of the letter down his page.

 

Snapped Shot: Pwned by the Associated Press

Brian "Property of the A.P." Ledbetter · Sunday, March 2. 2008 20:03
We have been informed that the Associated Press takes issue with our use of their images on this website, and until I'm able to resolve this matter with them amicably, I'm going to have to take the site offline.

Comment(s) »

  1. there's NO basis for written word to be 'PROPRIETARY" If it were then nobody could mention anything about what theyve read or heard ....so there you have it ....never see the light of a court room !!!!!

    Comment by aza spade— 2008/03/16 @ 07:24 PM — (Reply)

  2. corporations own process not idea ....

    Comment by aza spade— 2008/03/16 @ 07:37 PM — (Reply)

  3. Please consider this comment as my official waiver to allow all of you to use any of the material I have published and will publish.

    BG

    Comment by Barry G.— 2008/03/16 @ 08:12 PM — (Reply)

  4. When you take a look at Sam's post on the same topic :

    http://sam.bloghi.com/2008/03/17/does-copying-and-pasting-someone-else-s-blog-constitute-a-blog-posting.html

    Sam makes sense. AP doesn't.

    BG

    Comment by Barry G.— 2008/03/16 @ 08:40 PM — (Reply)

  5. hummmmmmmmmmmm

    Comment by aza spade— 2008/03/16 @ 09:28 PM — (Reply)

  6. Sounds to me like a control attempt, blogs are the newest media so to speak and they are not controlled by the media machine, and THEY don't like it, just like talk radio, if you cant divert..... subvert...and as for being fair, they arent intrested in that, its all the mighty buck that they want.....Dear AP go copulate yourself.....riff

    Comment by riffran— 2008/03/17 @ 01:42 AM — (Reply)

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