Right to cite?

AP kicked off a row in the blogosphere over sending lawyers letters to the publisher of the Drudge Retort for his use of quotes (with credit) from articles written by the agency.

As many bloggers reacted in anger at AP's actions the organisation hastily qualified its initial position. Here's the statement they sent us.

In response to questions about the use of Associated Press content on the Drudge Retort web site, the AP was able to provide additional information to the operator of the site, Rogers Cadenhead, on Thursday. That information was aimed at enabling Mr Cadenhead to bring the contributed content on his site into conformance with the policy he earlier set for his contributors.

Both parties consider the matter closed. In addition, the AP has had a constructive exchange of views this week with a number of interested parties in the blogging community about the relationship between news providers and bloggers and that dialogue will continue.

In spite of the phoney war between big media and bloggers often paraded in the press, the relationship is in reality more symbiotic than parasitic. Bloggers read and quote big media, journalists read blogs looking for news.

In the player below Arianna Huffington reflects on the row and on The Huffington Post's use of media content, she calls it a serious mistake on the part of AP.

AP says it has a continuing 'dialogue' with bloggers on this issue. But what should the approach be? We discussed the issues with media lawyer Mark Stephens, and blogger and Guardian columnist Jeff Jarvis.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?