Bloggers! Beware Of Associated Press!
The press agency called Associated Press has apparently got upset by bloggers who copy and paste a little of one of their releases of news, then add a link to the Associate Press article in question.
Apparently Associated Press are still living in the 1950's or before.

Shooting Themselves In The Feet!
By adopting this as a policy, they will reduce their public profile, and therefore their credibility. Presumably their paying subscribers will then desert the sinking ship and go to Reuters News Agency.
This attitude fits in well with my own personal opinion on how a lot of corporations are run, namely, for short term gain. Like governments, short term gain. Like capitalism itself, for short term gain.

Beware of Linking To Associated Press
I wish them well, but have never linked to them, and now never will, even though I am finding good material in the news in general to give me inspiration for my blogging. It seems that Associated Press are out of bounds for us all as bloggers - to quote them, you run the risk of legal action.  They even spammed a load of 'offending' blogsites with form-letter style comments.

Fools and Their Money Are Soon Parted
My opinion? - Hahahaha, the policy makers at Associated Press seemingly could not organise a party inside a brewery. If I was a shareholder I would be asking some serious questions as to why the company I am investing in is making policy that will result in it's own failure to exist.

Bloggers Are Now Forced To Boycott
My suggestion to bloggers? - NEVER, EVER, quote associated press. This would probably include articles in your local newspaper that are marked as having  Associated Press as the source. The way to go is try to find the same subject matter supplied by a different news agency, and link to that one instead. This way, you can avoid legal action by Associated Press. If you don't mention them, then they will go away, maybe forever.


Edited - I have to add this link that I just found at a blogsite, regarding the subject and giving the prices AP wants you to pay for quoting them - Techdirt

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