Heads-up to those of you who post news items on your LJs:

[ramblin_rosie]

The Associated Press is cracking down ridiculously hard on bloggers. (More info here, here, and here.) Apparently it started with the Drudge Retort--a parody of the Drudge Report--and has gotten way out of hand, with the AP first sending cease-and-desist orders for even linking to their stories, then charging $2.50/word for excerpts as short as five words. [Edit to clarify: The rate starts at $12.50 for 5-25 words and goes as high as $100 for anything over 250 words. That still comes out to $0.50-$2.50 a word for the short bits.]
Fair use, schmair use, they seem to be saying.
It's not clear how the matter will shake out in the long run, but for now, the bloggers I've seen discuss the matter have declared a boycott and begun going everywhere *but* the AP for news stories. Not only does it keep liability to a minimum, but it also drives down traffic, and thus ad revenue, for the AP. Seems like a sensible policy to me.
So. FYI, FWIW.

Comments

[bbgreenie.livejournal.com]

... and there's another dinosaur who doesn't really understand how the web works.

[1bigbeatlesfan.livejournal.com]

Um...how does AP know you've linked to them? And what does FWIW mean?

[ramblin_rosie]

I'm not quite sure how it works, but there are ways to tell where a person comes to your page from; most statistics trackers include that information. So if, say, someone clicks on your site's link to MFFC, your page would show up in my stats as a referrer.
FWIW = for what it's worth. :)

[1bigbeatlesfan.livejournal.com]

Oh okay. I remember now...I use Bravenet's counter service and you can also check to see referrals (where people come from when they visit your site) and I can see what links people use.