Associated Press: Getting Their Just Desserts

Along with other bloggers who are livid that the Associated Press would have the audacity to suggest that we pay them per word for quotations from their articles, I am interested in seeing the AP get its just desserts.

Several have suggested (Michelle Malkin was the first, I think) that we bloggers begin to charge the Associated Press, per word, for quotations they use from us.

The AP would love to have everyone think that only they have original news material. This is far from the truth. The AP has been known to quote from bloggers on a regular basis.

They quoted from Michelle Malkin, without her permission of course, because of the fair use provisions of the law which allow quotations of a certain length, provided credit is given to the original source.

But the AP wishes to go far beyond the provisions of the law and mandate harsh restrictions on the use of quotes from their stories. They will allow us 9 words. Beyond that, we have to pay them a 'per word' fee.

In response, bloggers across the country are boycotting and banning any story from the Associated Press.

This should continue. But in addition to the ban, bloggers who have been quoted by the AP should send the agency what Michelle Malkin refers to as a 'joke bill,' detailing how much money they owe the blogger in question for using their material.

In fact, since most bloggers do not make money from blogging, unlike the Associated Press, which rakes in millions from those who use the service, our 'per word' fees should be much, much higher than the AP's.

Say Uncle, a blogger in Knoxville, TN, quipped that perhaps he should charge the AP multi-thousands per word. Sounds like a good idea to me.

But alas, I don't think the AP has ever quoted anything from my little peon blog. That's too bad. All I would need is just a four-word quote. And since I would be charging them $250,000 per word, I would be a freakin' millionaire.

Sometimes life sucks...