TechCrunch vs Associated Press [AP]

Everyone enjoys watching a good fight and it's nice if everyone gets to watch one. A recent public fight has begun with Michael Arrington [original article][followup article] and the Associated Press [AP], and it's getting pretty popular. The fight is about AP's charges for copying and pasting their content [text used in an article], and the fact that AP is actually suing some organizations for doing so.

What makes this story so important is that Michael Arrington is the tech/internet world's Dan Rather. Michael Arrington owns one of the most popular blogs [TechCrunch] in the world and is #1 when it comes to the internet business sector.

Normal internet news written by bloggers and journalists copy and paste article content from AP on their own website very often and sometimes even show the original source info or a link to the content in their own article.

As an example [MSNBC article by AP], if we wanted to only copy and paste the text in the first paragraph of the article, it would cost us $50. If we didn't pay the $50 up front, they may want to sue us [I'm copying and pasting it at the end of this article and we're not paying!].

The AP is the last organization to realize that traditional journalism is dead. Information is immediate, passed along with additional commentary and points-of-view that traditional reporters don't provide. Hence the reason that bloggers have grown in great popularity.

The AP is fighting a losing battle against Michael Arrington and his point of view, especially with “The Freedom of Speech”. In the video world with news reporting, people can upload and add commentary to a news video to any website and not worry about copyright infrigements.

Kudos to Michael Arrington for manning up to this important subject. It's refreshing to see an important figure in reporting, to stand up for what's right.

 Here's the quote I promised to provide from AP that we chose to copy & paste:  "In his hunt for a new home, Demetrius Stroud crunched the numbers to find out that, with gas prices climbing, moving near an Amtrak station is the best thing for his wallet."