The AP throws a temper tantrum

Lawyers from the AP cried like little bitches this past weekend and told Drudge Retort to take down "seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words." Wah, wah, wah. You stole my words. I mean, you didn't plagiarize, and you included links to the articles, but wah, wah wah!

This piece in the Times (who are NOT a bunch of whiny bitches and therefore probably won't complain that I've quoted Saul Hansell's article) says the AP has slightly backed off of their earlier position, hoping to set guidelines on quoting. But don't think it'll be easy. I mean, those AP writers know how to distill:

“It’s hard to see how the Drudge Retort ‘first few lines’ is a substitute for the story,” Mr. Wu said.

Mr. Kennedy argued, however, that The Associated Press believes that in some cases, the essence of an article can be encapsulated in very few words.

The AP should probably be careful what they say. If I were a managing editor of a newspaper, I'd be asking why I have to pay so much for print rights when one or two sentences is all that matter. I'd start demanding massive discounts.