
$12.50 to quote 5 words of an AP story - mcantelon
https://license.icopyright.net/rights/offer.act?inprocess=t&sid=36&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3DD99Q89400
======
luckyland
According to the T.O.S., you can't lawfully quote an article if you intend to
criticize it?

Derogatory and Unlawful Uses:

You shall not use the Content in any manner or context that will be in any way
derogatory to the author, the publication from which the Content came, or any
person connected with the creation of the Content or depicted in the Content.
You agree not to use the Content in any manner or context that will be in any
way derogatory to or damaging to the reputation of Publisher, its licensors,
or any person connected with the creation of the Content or referenced in the
Content

~~~
jrockway
If you pay them money.

If you quote them without paying, exercising your right to fair use, then you
can criticize them all you want.

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jrockway
I pasted my own work into the text box, and it tried to charge me money. It
also let me buy, "fuck you, ever heard of fair use". (OK, I used a fake credit
card number, but it got all the way to failing credit card authorization.
Disgusting. Why do they think they can legally resell my work!?)

~~~
lutorm
I guess it's an assumption that if you try to buy it from AP, then _you_ have
already concluded that the text is copyrighted by AP. I doubt they have
instant access to everything they've ever written...

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Oompa
This is just disgusting.

~~~
delano
It's their data. They can do whatever they want with it.

~~~
semiquaver
"It's my business, I can refuse to hire blacks if I want to."

~~~
le_dominator
Haha that's a bit of a stretch! If it's their own internal data and they want
to monetize it in this way, the market will decide whether the price they set
is worthy of the product being sold.

While I might disagree with the usefulness/pricing of their data considering
widely available alternative sources it isn't exactly on par with maligning
someone's civil rights :D

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yread
Apparently it's not news: _Founded in 1998, iCopyright has generated millions
of dollars in new licensing revenue for online publishers, and has seven
patents pending in the field of automated copyright licensing and
permissions._

But it's not really that big if in 11 years they generated just millions of
dollars...

~~~
dotcoma
they're actually probably a company that makes no sense at all and whose
short-lived moment of (apparent) grace has just come (and will vanish soon)

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edw519
No problem. Using my handy AP obfuscator...

 _For compliance reasons, please identify the web site where you will be
posting or linking this article._

becomes

For compliance reasons, please aardvark identify the web site aardvark where
you will be aardvark posting or linking this aardvark article.

A new market for Firefox AP de-obfuscation plug-ins?

~~~
froo
You could always quote the AP article and just remove all the spaces, turning
it into one gigantic word.

Sort of like:

_Forcompliancereasonspleaseidentifythewebsitewhereyouwillbepostingorlinkingthisarticle_

That would bring it under the 5 word threshold for which you need to pay,
although it would definitely cause havoc with layouts on websites.

~~~
kreneskyp
how_about_underscores_and_a_greasemonkey_script?

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bgmccollum
They don't appear to be escaping the input when you click preview. I wouldn't
be handing these fools my credit card.

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jakewolf
I'm thinking this is a good time to start an AP for blogs where bloggers can
write articles to be syndicated among other blog.

~~~
randallsquared
What's the point of that? We already have hyperlinks.

~~~
onreact-com
Many people don't click links in blogs, they mostly prefer to read their
favorite sources.

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seldo
Luckily, "The AP are idiots" is only four words.

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phantom784
"are trying to find out what happened" - oops?

[http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_MISSING_AMERICAN...](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_MISSING_AMERICANS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-08-02-15-36-31)

oh wait, <http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107>

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cscotta
Don't worry - it looks like there's an educational/non-profit discount of 40%.
So generous!

If only my work were valued at 50¢/word...

~~~
dan_the_welder
2.50?

~~~
anigbrowl
Hey, you can get 25 words for the price of 5 - a $50 value!

~~~
dan_the_welder
But wait, that's not all! If you respond now we will include a handful of
prepositions and a huge pile of adjectives for no extra charge!

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yread
Good that Fravia didn't live to see this!

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omouse
WTF? Doesn't fair use exist?

~~~
jrockway
Why not make a few bucks off of people that don't know their rights? It works
for the criminal justice system...

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TrevorJ
What if you had somebody read the AP article, and then you quote that person?

"The AP reports that GM's sales are down last quarter, says John Smith."

Then you'd just be quoting a source. Would that be infringement?

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omouse
Wait wait wait, this is a sensationalist headline. The submitter obviously
picked an AP story to frame them as evil.

iCopyright is the company that provides this Fair Use-violating service and
here are some of their clients <http://info.icopyright.com/conductor.asp> *
The Globe & Mail * REUTERS * Associated Press * The Toronto Star * Ziff Davis
Media * The Boston Globe

~~~
mcantelon
Because a company is a client of iCopyright doesn't necessarily mean they're
using the same product/service as AP or employing the same pricing model.
iCopyright, like most companies, likely provides more than one
product/service.

~~~
omouse
If you read the page, you could see that all of them are using the same set of
products/services, namely iCopyright Conductor which is the reprint/DRM
bullshit.

Don't just tar & feather AP, tar & feather the whole bunch that are clients of
this company!

~~~
mcantelon
I think the pricing is more of an issue than the tech. If AP were asking for
12 cents rather than $12.50 for 5 words the reaction might be different. What
are the pricing models of these other companies that you suggest are equally
at fault?

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Mystalic
How long has the republish button been there?

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jacquesm
I think I owe them a lot of money. Do the words have to be consecutive ? In
order ? In the same article ?

That's going to make the AP a lot of money I bet.

It's going to be hard to get on without them, but we're certainly going to try
our best.

btw, I'm fairly sure there is a legally allowed minimum that you can quote
from anything under fair use.

~~~
lutorm
It is my understanding that the law says nothing definite about what is fair
use, it only gives guidelines about what shall be taken into consideration
when determining whether it is. That's a big part about why exercising your
right to fair use exposes you to frivolous lawsuits that you have to be able
to defend yourself agains.

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dannyr
So what would happen if a user posted a comment with an excerpt or submitted
it to Digg?

Would AP force the sites to take the comment down or Digg to remove the story?

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yawniek
whats the legal status if i translate it or use 1337speak?

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onreact-com
I sell you 5 words for 10$. Also my words will rhyme and you can resell them.
For each time you resell them you get a discount of 2$.

