AP May Start Charging For Quotes

Just read a story on a CNN blog about a potential plan by the AP to charge for quotes. Until this is clarified I may stop linking to their news stories.

Apparently the AP is working with iCopyright and may begin billing for quotes as short as five words.

In a statement released Monday, the Associated Press claims the licensing “form is not aimed at bloggers. It is intended to make it easy for people who want to license AP content to do so.”

Bloggers may not be the primary targets, but vague licensing terms leave open the frightening prospect of legal action against anyone who quotes an AP article.

There are other news sources. As the blogger in the CNN post mentions the AP is shooting themselves in the foot. Ordinary bloggers are not going to want to pay for the content. To be clear they shouldn't be copying and pasting entire articles, but a short excerpt is a different story altogether.