Isn’t it just simpler to never quote from them again? They aren’t crucial or even that important in news gathering. Lots of alternatives exist to AP, so let’s use them.
Now of course AP is whining we don’t mean bloggers. Frankly, I don’t give a damn. So, this blog now has a policy to never, ever quote from AP again. I suggest other websites do the same.
Apparently they are too stupid to understand that incoming links mean traffic to them, and they combine that with a genuine nastiness towards the web. Sure, people shouldn’t, as sometimes happens, quote entire articles. That’s not Fair Use. But charging $2.50 a word is no solution to that.
I did a series of posts in Aug. 2006 here on Fair Use. If you do short quotes, link back, and add your own content and ideas, then by most any standard, it’ll be Fair Use and not a copyright violation.