The Economist<\/a> is running a (moderated) public debate<\/a> on copyright that should be interesting to those involved in electronic publishing, particularly on the Web. In light of recent attempts by the AP to implement a rather draconian copyright policy<\/a> this is an issue worth following. AP has tried going after some bloggers<\/a> and artists<\/a>, so far without much success. Nonetheless, their published fees<\/a> for online quoting of excerpts of their content are absurd:<\/p>\n
Words<\/strong><\/th>\n| Fees<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n | 5 – 25<\/td>\n | $12.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 26 – 50<\/td>\n | $17.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 51 – 100<\/td>\n | $25.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 101 – 250<\/td>\n | $50.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 251 and up<\/td>\n | $100.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | I don’t mean to imply that they aren’t allowed to protect their intellectual property, particularly in unambiguous (albeit funny<\/a>) situations, but if these kinds of fees are enforced, it will be prohibitively expensive for most publishers to even mention the titles<\/em> of AP articles!<\/p>\n |
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