AP trap and how to avoid it
A few days ago, Laboratorium broke a story about how AP charges for content (although supposedly not for bloggers). He argues that AP's licensing policy is absurd, whether it's for bloggers or the members of the MSM.
I agree, and I propose a solution: stop using AP's content.
Associated Press has its roots in small newspapers not wanting to pay big newspapers for their story, while still allowing them to cover non-local stories without incurring the great cost of having paid reporters all over the nation. In the case of radio (where there is a similar story about peoplo not wanting to pay a monopolist for royalty) one can say that there's no public domain or alternate sources to dip into and use that as excuse for promoting the oligopolists on radio. But, in the case of news, that shouldn't be our excuse.
With so many bloggers out there, surely there are sources of news closer to the action who haven't handed over their copyright to associated press? Heck, for heaven's sake, we can probably quote and link to news networks, at least for the stories which do not say that AP had anything to do with it.
You hate AP; I hate AP. Let's vote with our feet: stop linking to and quoting AP news. AP will be simply repeating history if it fades into background through draconian copyright enforcement with little respect to fair use or fairness in licensing.
Joe Biden promises a blank check to the entertainment cartel
VP Joe Biden stood up in front of a bunch of Hollywood execs and promised to appoint a copyright czar, and furthermore, that this would be the "right" person to protect their interests. I would have voted Dem in the last election, if I got a vote, but make no mistakes: the Dems are the party of stupid copyright laws. From Hollywood Howard Berman on down, they've got a terrible track record on technology and copyright policy.
Well, all I can say is I voted for Gov. Palin. I'm not responsible. In fact, I've said many, many times that Biden is bad news (if Obama wasn't already).
Doctorow would've voted for Dems (because, despite all the good things about him, he's a liberal). Well, if I ever died and re-incarnated back as something sentient, I would vote against Dems every single time (so if I ever vote for a Dem, you will know that I've become a vegetable, or died ... and "raised back to life" by left-wing necromancy ).