AP, Roethlisberger Follies Continue - Tue, Jul 28 2009 at 9:23 pm
Just a quick follow-up to our blog entries about the Associated Press’ bizarre plan to charge to link them and ESPN’s non-coverage of the Ben Roethlisberger civil suit
SPORTSTALKER QUITS OVER STFU REQUEST: Sports Media Watch relays the news that Dale Hansen, a sportsyapper at 103.3 FM in Dallas, an ESPN affiliate, has resigned after being told of ESPN’s directive not to talk about Big Ben’s issues.
ASSOCIATED PRESS GIVES US THE SILENT TREATMENT: Daggle (I don’t make these names up) reports that the AP has stopped talking about their plan to protect newspapers from content piracy. “For the moment, we’re done”, said an AP spokesperson. Fear not, however, a clever and foolproof plan to charge for hyperlinking AP stories is still supposedly in the works.
Holding back it’s effectiveness is the fact that the protection technology doesn’t actually protect anything, and that content piracy is an inconsequential problem for free sites in the big picture.
The latter point, I think, is especially relevant. I’m not sure how protecting the latest AP story that has already been reported ten different places makes Craigslist go away. Or Monster.com. Or whatever real estate and automotive sales sites are out there. Or makes people want to deal with pulling part of a dead tree out of their bushes each morning.
Even if the tech actually worked, and pirates gave up, it wouldn’t solve the industry’s fundamental problems. All it would do is create work for another twenty battalions of lawyers and make it harder for sites like this one to bring news to fans.
