Associated Press plans to crack down on bloggers

It was about this time last year that I wrote a blogpost about the plans Associated Press had to charge bloggers (or others) for quoting AP articles:

Now the AP reports that persons wishing to quote their articles must get a license to do so, and even so may only quote up to FOUR WORDS for free. Using 5-25 words requires payment of $12.50, and thereafter a graded scale up to $100 for quoting 251 words or more.

Furthermore, the public is encouraged to report piracy, for prizes up to $1 million. Finally, if you do quote an AP article, you are expressly forbidden from criticizing the Associated Press (even if you pay them their fee).

I'm trying to figure out how to express my opinion of the Associated Press in four words or fewer.

The issue appears not to have gone away. The New York Times reported on new developments this past week.

Each article — and, in the future, each picture and video — would go out with what The A.P. called a digital “wrapper,” data invisible to the ordinary consumer that is intended, among other things, to maximize its ranking in Internet searches. The software would also send signals back to The A.P., letting it track use of the article across the Web.

Cory Doctorow offeres some salient observations at BoingBoing.

Via Mashable.