Thread: AP wants Web sites to pay newspapers for content

AP wants Web sites to pay newspapers for content

By Richard Perez-Pena

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
2:00 a.m. April 7, 2009

The Associated Press is concerned about the links to news stories on search engines such as Yahoo, shown in screen grab. The cooperative wants to make sure newspapers get just compensation. -

Taking aim at the way news is spread across the Internet, The Associated Press said yesterday that Web sites that used the work of news organizations must obtain permission and share revenue with them, and that it would take legal action against those that did not.

AP executives said they were concerned about a variety of news forums around the Web, including major search engines such as Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report that link to news articles, smaller sites that sometimes reproduce entire articles and companies that sell packaged news feeds.

They said that they did not want to stop the appearance of articles around the Web, but to exercise some control over the practice and to profit from it.

The group's new stance applies to thousands of news organizations whose work is distributed by AP, as well as its own material, but the debate about unauthorized use has focused on newspapers, which are in serious financial trouble, and which own the AP. The policies were adopted by the AP board, composed mostly of newspaper industry executives.

AP will “work with portals and other partners who legally license our contentâ€

AP executives said they were concerned about a variety of news forums around the Web, including major search engines such as Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report that link to news articles, smaller sites that sometimes reproduce entire articles and companies that sell packaged news feeds.

Anyone we know? I am shocked shocked!