I read with amusement today that the AP wants to clamp down on internet sites that are using their content without paying for it. Here. Here. Go AP Go. In fact, the AP should put all of its content behind paid subscriptions so the rest of us don’t have to see the trash replicated thousands of times — it is like junk mail that get routinely discarded in order to find the first class mail. Also, it is so annoying that the ‘news’ media in this country even relies on services like AP. The AP provides much of the content in thousands of newspapers irrelevant and redundant. In fact, when I see dateline AP, I immediate discard it. No wonder nobody wants to buy newspapers and only news media buys from AP.
Like most things the AP does, this recent plan is not very well thought out. As soon as anything is published on the web it can be linked to which serves the purposes of most people. If you want to change that you need to go to court and overturn a number of precedents. Also, people can quote from the article if they cite it. Maybe the U.S. should abolish the fair use laws. About the only thing people cannot do is to claim significant parts as their own — unless you are a U.S. Senator, lol. Also, what is the AP going to do about countries who don’t give a hoot about US copyright laws? Will the internet reach that far? I think it might. Maybe the US should make it illegal for Americans to read anything which violates copyrights? Well, bring out the encryption. Make that illegal as well. Oh they did that. Invent some new encryption. Maybe we can build more jails for readers. Plus, anything really important is covered by numerous other better sources anyway.
The internet destroyed music. Yet, there is more music on youtube that a person could ever listen to. Plus, new groups just love to post their stuff. Maybe there will be no Britney, at some point, but most of us can live with that. Likewise, the internet is destroying media. Blame it on the digital — lol.
Newspapers should have already figured out that they have to provide something unique to get people to buy their rags. Here is a clue — you won’t get it from the AP who is the crack whore of the news industry. AP is the place where news is outsourced as reporters are laid off from their newspapers. Maybe the newspapers should just stop buying the AP content — problem solved with the AP clamping down on anybody.
Technology is destroying jobs and there is nothing anybody can do about it except to figure out how to socialize work. For now, everybody will keep playing the capitalism music chairs until there is only one chair left.
America is doomed.
