AP Drops Conflict with Drudge Retort; No Formal Agreement Made with Media Bloggers Association

The Associated Press (AP) reports it has resolved its conflict with copyright-infringing bloggers, reports MarketingVOX.

The AP recently attacked bloggers in a media fight about “fair use” of content. Specifically, it took issue with bloggers excerpting titles or sentences from its articles, which other publications must pay to publish in entirety.

The dispute began when AP demanded that the Drudge Retort, an online news/opinion site, take down seven stories that allegedly infringe upon fair use of content. The situation quickly mushroomed into a battle against any blog that quotes too loosely from an AP story.

Influential bloggers defended their activities, arguing that summarizing news and linking back to the source are now a common way to both consume news and promote source content. Some banned the use of AP stories on their sites.

Last week, the Media Bloggers Association said it would meet with AP to form appropriate guidelines between their parties.

The AP reported having a “constructive exchange” with “interested parties in the blogging community” since the debacle. It formally ended its conflict with the Drudge Retort, but no guidelines were formed between itself and the Media Bloggers Association.

The Association stated that no meeting ever took place. It stated the outcome was “not a clear win for anyone [but] also not a loss for anyone either.”

“No ‘guidelines’ were established, no precedents set and no one needs to spend time in court,” wrote president Robert Cox of the Association.

On Friday the 20th, Rogers Cadenhead of the Drudge Retort wrote:

I’m glad that my personal legal dispute with the AP is resolved…but it does nothing to resolve the larger conflict between how AP interprets fair use and how thousands of people are sharing news on the web.

Cadenhead compared the conflict to the war between the RIAA and filesharing sites. “Asking [AP] to concede there’s a way people can share [its subscription content] for free is like asking the RIAA to pick its favorite file-sharing client,” he said.

With regard to the AP/Drudge Retort conflict, the Media Bloggers Association said the AP ultimately failed to provide public guidance for bloggers. And “Rogers is refusing to bail them out by publishing the guidance they gave him last night,” Cox added.