LA Times Tells AP: Quit Hassling Bloggers

The Associated Press recently pulled a Metallica online, and no, that's not a good thing. Metallica, one of the most popular heavy-metal bands of all time, has become a symbol for cluelessness about the Internet -- witness the episode two weeks go, when the band forced music bloggers to take down reviews of its as-yet-unreleased new album after inviting them to hear it. Last week, the AP sicced its lawyers on the Drudge Retort, demanding the removal of six blog posts and a comment that included excerpts from AP stories. Each item, in fact, consisted of little more than a headline, a link to an AP story on Yahoo or an AP member's site, and a short excerpt -- less than 80 words, or about half the length of the paragraph you just read.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[RTIII]

I agree "Fair Use" is fair use. If they were pointing to the source, then they're actually doing the AP a favor and in any event, they're not breaking the law. If I were those bloggers I would NOT comply and force them to open a lawsuit. The AP will only lose.