AP's war on bloggers

I've only been following this from a distance, but apparently Associated Press has a problem with bloggers quoting its articles. They sent nasty letters to Drudge Retort demanding they take down quotes, and the reaction in the blogosphere has been, well, predictable.

The latest round? After appearing to back off, AP set up a tollbooth for quoting as few as 5 words. At $2.50 per word, no less.

I wonder how that affects me. I'm not a non-profit organization, so I wouldn't qualify for their discount. But I don't have ads, so can't be classified as a commercial activity, either.

Fortunately, there may be some relief coming later this week. As a hobbyist, I can't afford the consequences of quoting the article directly, since it was written by an AP reporter. Instead, I'll quote random words and phrases from numerous other AP articles:

New York - The Associated Press, following criticism from bloggers over an AP assertion of copyright, plans to meet this week with a bloggers' group to help form guidelines under which AP news stories could be quoted online.

If you want to read the article I didn't quote, try here.

I hope that AP comes to it's senses soon - this is hard!

Update: Ace counter-offers.