LwC…AP’s copyright protection ends where everyone else’s First Amendment rights begin. Sending legal “hate mail” in bulk to “little guy” bloggers is a form of copyright abuse, where a copyright is used to stifle free speech. Federal judges take a dim view of this kind of behavior.
If AP keeps this up, some clever bloggers with some good legal representation will file a declaratory claim in federal court to get an immediate court opinion on whether or not a particular blog post is indeed fair use or not. AP risks losing this big time and they won’t have a leg to stand on. This shouldn’t take more than a few months for the initial ruling and will effectively put an end to AP’s nasty campaign. It’s going to be an important ruling for the sake of free speech.
Oh, and one other point. These bloggers who sit in “mommy’s basement” have called AP to the mat for promulgating lies with doctored images and worse. I’d say they are pretty valuable to maintaining freedom of the press and keeping the media honest.
Once again proving that freedom isn’t granted, it’s earned!
