Comments on: AP To Sue Google News? Blogs? Someone?

By: Bithead

Bithead — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:02:18 +0000

James;
the obvious leaves out in the form of a conversation we had earlier today. That was with regards to the dinosaurs adopting new models on the web. It strikes me as an ugly plausible that what AP is attempting to do is eliminate competition on the web with legal chicanery.

By: The Moderate Voice

The Moderate Voice — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:00:04 +0000

AP Threatens To Sue To Protect Newspaper Content From Being Used On Websites Without Licensing...

In an era when the Internet, economy, and changing habits of young people in how and where they get their information is decimating the standard newspaper and news agency business models, it sounds as of the Associated Press is throwing down the gauntl...

By: steve s

steve s — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:37:35 +0000

Yeah there are similarities here with the RIAA. Business model suddenly eroded by new technology. Trying to sue your profits back. Ugh. I can understand why they do it, but it's still stupid.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:27:42 +0000

The dark side of the Long Tail.

It seems to me that this is of a piece with the RIAA suing individuals doing small-scale illegal distribution. They can sue. They can win. They probably can't collect. The most they'll probably accomplish is to alienate readers.

Note that the readers aren't the AP's customers. Its subscribers, the newspapers, are.

By: John E. Bredehoft

John E. Bredehoft — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:15:13 +0000

If the AP truly believes that the path to success is to require people to go to an AP-approved site to read ANY of its content, then removing the content from non-AP sites is only half the battle. The other half is to convince the public that all of the non-AP sites have inferior content and should be avoided in favor of AP sites. Unfortunately for AP, silos are out of fashion these days.