SAN DIEGO — The Associated Press and the newspaper industry plan an aggressive effort to track down copyright violators on the Internet and try to divert traffic from websites that don’t properly license news content, the AP board announced Monday.
The nonprofit news cooperative also said it will cut fees by $35 million for U.S. newspapers in 2010 — on top of a $30 million reduction that took effect this year — and loosen its long-standing requirement for two years’ notice to cancel AP service.
The financial moves are part of an overhaul of AP’s policies in the face of extraordinary financial hardship for newspapers. The changes were announced at AP’s annual meeting in San Diego, along with the copyright initiative launched by AP’s board, which is made up largely of newspaper executives.
“We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under some very misguided, unfounded legal theories,” said William Dean Singleton, AP’s chairman and the chief executive of Denver-based newspaper publisher ap, parent of The Denver Post.
“We are mad as hell, and we are not going to take it anymore,” he added, prompting applause in the meeting.
Specifics behind the initiative are still being worked out. One idea under development would be to create a system that can help track whether news content is being legally distributed online.
AP also said it will work with newspapers and broadcasters to direct readers to “landing pages” that could offer news from AP and its members, rather than unauthorized sites.
