The AP Can Still Kiss My Ass

They've settled with the Drudge Retort but the battle ahead ain't gonna be pretty:

If AP's guidelines end up like the ones they shared with me, we're headed for a Napster-style battle on the issue of fair use.

Does the AP really want this battle? My guess is yes and I also am willing to bet they will lose big. With Napster, people were stealing copyrighted material without any compensation. With blogging, the stories are linked and people generally click through to the website hosting the AP story. That website contains ads, which allow the website to make money.

Generally, bloggers adhere to fair use rules by posting a paragraph or two. The AP has pissed me off so much I'm posting as much as is required and say screw the click through to the link.

The next step is for bloggers to just stop linking to AP stories and if Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds and Charles Johnson do that, the traffic at sites that host AP material will plummet forcing them to back down. I'm on board with the ban from here on out.