For the next couple of days I will probably be swamped completing projects that are due the week I am gone and trying to finish preparing for the trip.

However, there have been several stories I have been following over the past few days and I wanted to share some of the more important and more interesting links.

So, in addition to the weekend linkroll, which will go up as usual this Saturday (I will be forward posting it), here are some stories that I’ve been keeping a close eye on.

The AP/Drudge Retort Controversy

In what has turned into a major controversy, the Associated Press sent a series of DMCA takedown notices to the Drudge Retort, at least some of which were for very short quotes of AP articles, only a few dozen words each.

This has led to a very severe backlash against the AP, including calling for some bloggers to boycott the organization. The AP, however, says that the Drudge Retort got “On their radar” after doing more extensive copying.

The AP is said to be working with the Media Bloggers Association to come up with a set of guidelines for bloggers to use their content but others are worried that the MBA has no authority to negotiate on behalf of most bloggers and that the AP may use this as a means to artificially define fair use, possibly in a manner more restrictive than what the law allows.

The AP, for its part, denies that and claims it is just trying to open up lines of communication.

Links

AP Files 7 DMCA Takedowns Against Drudge Retort
Backstory on AP – Drudge Retort Issue
Copyright: AP gets tough and bloggers get angry
AP to Meet with Blogging Group to Form Guidelines
AP to Negotiate with sham “Media Bloggers Association

Personal Note

I would encourage anyone interested in this controversy to read a post I did in January for the European Journalism Centre on the topic of avoiding copyright controversies.

Avoiding Copyright Catastrophe

The Kerals.com Controversy

A major issue for bloggers from India, the Kerals controversy erupted when a blogger Inji Pennu, discovered some of her articles available on the Kerals.com site (link omitted intentionally). She wrote the site to request removal of her work and, according to an email exchange posted to her blog, representatives of the site respondedly rudely and even at one point threatened her physically.

Pennu has filed a “complaint” against the site and we are awaiting any resolution. The last update was on Jun 6, three days after the original post.

Links

Stealing, Threat, Cyber Stalking, Abuse – What next Kerals.com ?
Bullying bloggers, stealing content, and threats (Round Up)

Note: I was unable to find a link from Kerals perspective on this matter. If you find one, please let me know so I can include it for balance.

Conclusions

This is truly a bad time for me to be on a limited posting schedule. There are a lot of very important stories going on and I will do my best to cover them when I get back or even while I am gone.

I will be looking forward to writing an overview of these things and updating the stories as they progress.