As further proof that the print media just doesn't get it, Richard Perez-Pena, reporting for the NYT on the AP’s latest announcement regarding their attempt to restrict their articles from being linked to or appearing in search results writes (I read it online, btw...):
"Tom Curley, The A.P.’s president and chief executive, said the company’s position was that even minimal use of a news article online required a licensing agreement with the news organization that produced it. In an interview, he specifically cited references that include a headline and a link to an article, a standard practice of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, news aggregators and blogs."And:
"Each article — and, in the future, each picture and video — would go out with what The A.P. called a digital “wrapper,” data invisible to the ordinary consumer that is intended, among other things, to maximize its ranking in Internet searches. The software would also send signals back to The A.P., letting it track use of the article across the Web."Full NYT Article here.
Great title.
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me that they're not outwardly acknowledging any benefits to sharing content and will only cry "piracy" over the links that hold the Internet together. They should just call it "thanks, but we could make even more money if we changed the rules."
Looking at their goal to both charge for previously free content and to not lose traffic, I initially thought they were nuts. And maybe they are indeed being dumb and ignoring the way things are. Or maybe they do see reality as it is, and are proposing a paradigm shift similar to TV's shift from network broadcast to paid cable.
Thanks for the link!