AP Will Sell You a "License" To Words It Doesn't Own

James Grimmelmann performed an experiment using the AP's form to request a license to use more than four consecutive words from one of their articles. Except that he didn't paste in words from the (randomly chosen) article, but instead used 26 words written by Thomas Jefferson 196 years ago: If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea. The AP cheerfully charged him $12 to use Jefferson's 26 words. Both Boing Boing and TechDirt have picked up the story so far. Grimmelmann adds an update to his blog: the AP has rescinded his license to Jefferson's words and issued a refund for his $12. They did not exhibit the grace to admit that their software is brain-dead.

Comments

There's a market for meaningless licenses.

[Frater 219]

I've known folks whose workplaces used to pay Sun a license fee for Perl ... the same Perl you could download for free (as in beer); and yes, the same Perl that is one of the usual examples of successful free (as in speech) software.

No, they didn't get tech support. They didn't get to file bugs against Perl that would be resolved by a Sun engineer. They didn't even get a custom build of Perl optimized for their Sun hardware. They didn't even get a CD. What they got was an invoice ... precisely what their company's IT procurement process required.

It's idiotic, but there is in fact a market for nothing: if you are correctly positioned as a trusted supplier, there are cases when you can get paid for delivering no product at all, but merely for carrying out the ritual of delivering a product, with all the paperwork thereunto appertaining.

Reuters text?

[AhNewBis]

What if the AP sells you a license for text copyrighted by Reuters or any of the other wire services? Woah, man!

Re:Goodnight, Sweet AP.

[justin12345]

Indeed. Using Jefferson's words is not an effective demonstration of why their system is flawed. A better way of doing it would be to enter text which is you yourself have copyrighted. Acquire a license from AP for the text they do not own (because you do), publish it under their license, then sue AP for copyright infringement.