Marketing and all things related

The Associated Press is filing lawsuits against bloggers for quoting and/or linking to AP articles online.  In short, the Associated Press doesn't want bloggers to link to them, quote them, look at them or even breathe in their general direction.  How's that for an online marketing strategy?

Bloggers from the well-known Drudge Retort blog and social community are looking at "fair use" legal battles for using the Associated Press articles as sources.  Of course, I'm all for protecting written works, but in many instances cited as fair use violation by the Associated Press, the original source was attributed or linked to.  In one instance, a mere 18 words were quoted from an Associated Press article. 

I can understand that it can be hard for some organizations to embrace the blogosphere, but it's power can't be denied.  News of the Associated Press' heavy-handedness is spreading like wildfire across the blogosphere with many bloggers are calling for a boycott of the Associated Press, stating they will find other sources of news and information to link to such as Reuters. 

This isn't the first time that the Associated Press has filed a lawsuit because a website linked to its articles.  In October 2007, the Associated Press sued Moreoever and its parent company, Viacom, for linking to its articles.

The marketing message to be learned - don't underestimate the power of the blogosphere and don't threaten people.  Leverage the power of blogging and social media to bring your brand, business or product to the next level.  Work with new media outlets to grow your business and positive PR rather than trying to squash it with heavy-handed threats.

You can get more details about the Associated Press bullying bloggers on this post from Newshoggers.com.