The Internet firestorm over the Associated Press’s heavy-handed attempt to bully bloggers over fair use article excerpts has been absolutely schadenfreude-licious. Now, it’s time to turn the tables. If your blog or blog commenters have ever been quoted by the AP, listen up: It’s time to prepare a bill and demand payment.
First, a quick recap: AP showered a left-wing site with cease-and-desist letters, prompting many political and tech sites to boycott AP content. The latest uproar involves the AP’s pricing scheme charging bloggers $2.50/word and then scaling for excerpt usage. Here’s a screenshot of the media giant’s web usage agreement:
They want to charge people to quote five words??? Come on!
Michelle Malkin has come up with a formula for calculating the bill to charge the AP when they quote from her blog. So far, she figures they owe her $132,135. Not too shabby.
I'm going to have to be more careful, though, since I've quoted from the AP before. The next time I see a good AP story, I'll have to summarize instead of quoting, along the lines of: "The AP reported today that something happened. It was fascinating, and hearts were broken. Write your Congressman!"
Yes, that'll work...
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