Time For All Bloggers To Boycott The Associated Press

The AP wants bloggers who cite more than four words of any of their stories to pay $2.50 per word.

A single blogger was the catalyst. The wire service recently sent “take-down” notices to Rogers Cadenhead, creator of the “Drudge Retort,” a liberal answer to the much visited “Drudge Report” – asking him to remove six online posts that included AP content in any form, or risk charges of copyright infringement.

Mr. Cadenhead, who had used between 33 and 79 words from the AP in his dispatches, contended it was “fair use” of the material, in accordance with law. Still, he contacted the Media Bloggers Association (MBA), an industry group, seeking input on resolving a situation that seemed to have few viable protocols in place for bloggers, social networking sites and other online outlets.

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Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin suggested bloggers bill the AP if their own work has ever been mentioned by the AP. She figured the wire service owed her $132,125 after applying its own payment standards to citations of her work included in the AP stories.

“The Internet firestorm over the Associated Press’s heavy-handed attempt to bully bloggers is schadenfreude-licious . Now it’s time to turn the tables,” Mrs. Malkin said. “If your blog or blog comments have ever been quoted by the AP, listen up. It’s time to prepare a bill and demand payment.”

I’ll be going with Al-Reuters for now.