Prof Tests AP 'Copyfraud'

The Associated Press has made no secret of its stance that bloggers who excerpt passages from stories should pay licensing fees. But the wire service might want to take a closer look at how its licensing policy is being implemented. On Monday, New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann reported on his blog that he paid the AP $12 to license a 26-word quote from Thomas Jefferson. The quote, which takes aim at the concept of intellectual property, has long been in the public domain. The AP says the rights were sold through iCopyright, which the news service tapped to sell licenses online in April of 2008. "It is an automated form, thus explaining how one blogger got it to charge him for the words of a former president," the AP said. iCopyright CEO Mike O'Donnell says the company operates on the "honor system" and relies on "reasonable checks and balances to verify that people or companies getting licenses through the system are being honest." The platform asks users to cut and paste the text they wish to excerpt into a box, and then charges based on words used. O'Donnell says the company issues more than 25,000 licenses each day. By Monday afternoon, iCopyright had revoked the license it had granted Grimmelmann and refunded his $12.