AP Files 7 DMCA Takedowns Against Drudge Retort
I'm currently engaged in a legal disagreement with the Associated Press, which claims that Drudge Retort users linking to its stories are violating its copyright and committing “'hot news' misappropriation under New York state law.”
Context & Ripple Effects
AP had been expanding its controlled online distribution: in 2007, 100 radio and television sites joined its Online Video Network, using an MSN player alongside AP video and nationally managed advertising. The takedown campaign exposes a different boundary in that strategy: distribution AP manages versus referral traffic assembled by an outside community.
The dispute drew same-day coverage from several technology and media commentators, indicating that the copyright and New York “hot news” claims were being treated as a test of how much text may accompany a news link.
First-order effects
- Drudge Retort faces seven DMCA notices, putting the affected user posts and their accompanying AP excerpts at risk of removal.
- AP is asserting that links and excerpts can trigger both copyright and “hot news” claims, raising the compliance stakes for the site’s users and operators.
Second-order effects
- Other news-aggregation services have an immediate incentive to review excerpt length and moderation practices when linking to AP reporting, rather than treating linking as legally uniform.
- AP’s controlled distribution partners gain a clearer contrast with unaffiliated aggregators: one operates under AP’s technology and advertising arrangements, while the other is being challenged through rights enforcement.
Third-order effects
- If publishers press copyright and “hot news” theories against short excerpts, news aggregation may shift toward more restrictive linking and excerpt policies set by large wire services rather than by aggregators.
- The dispute points to a structural contest over whether publishers can use takedown processes to govern the referral layer around their reporting, not just copying of full articles.
The trend: Publishers are testing whether copyright enforcement can extend control from the news content itself to the excerpts and links that distribute attention around it.