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Marc Humbert/AP write that Tom Curley Promotes the e-AP about the new electronicAP.
"We are transforming the AP from a wire service, which we've been for 150 years ... to an interactive database and news network that connects us, and not just connects us technically, but more importantly connects our common business and journalistic goals," said the former president and publisher of USA Today.
Sounds great, except this:
Curley said that to increase revenues, the AP must expand its foreign presence, photo services, and revenue from the Internet, while increasing anti-piracy protection from those who would use AP's product without paying for it.
Huh? I'm sorry, but that's absolutely hilarious. While AP does good wire-service stuff, last I checked, it was not the provider of sexy content the way the RIAA and MPAA are, and frankly, practically everything they put out is available on the web for free from thousands of news outlets, who I presume? are paying AP for their services (note the link to the free AP article above). That I know of, there are not tens of millions of people file sharing AP stories on P2P networks, and while I'm sure there are a couple of people who might be taking AP product without paying (hackers logging into their network?), the idea that they might include some anti-piracy protection -- DRM? -- embedded in their stories is ridiculous. I mean, I know they can use XrML, but do they really want to? When he uses the word "anti-piracy" this leads me to believe this is what he has in mind (verses say good firewall management for their online databases). If they want to be the leading authority in their content category that people turn to (especially when it comes to news, which changes by the minute), is DRM more important than the potential for keeping readers from accessing their content?
I'm not sure Curley understands that on the web, he's not selling content, but instead is selling the service with the content as the bonus. News providers on the web provide value by organizing and editorializing the aggregation of a lot of information and articles, and that's what we, as news consumers will pay a premium price for, to get good quick information. But per article, the information is not a paying proposition except for the news outlets that repurpose and pay for it now, because they sell ads. The content definitely doesn't need DRM restricting its use.
Posted by Mary Hodder at September 07, 2003 04:47 PM