The Associated Press has released guidelines it expects bloggers and websites to follow when using its content. As I wrote about yesterday, the A.P. sent seven DMCA takedown notices to the Drudge Retort for user-generated headlines and less than 100 word quotes linking to A.P. stories. The A.P. has been helpful enough to offer a tiered system so anybody can license its content, ignoring for the moment the concept of fair use.

• 5-25 words: $12.50
• 26-50 words: $17.50
• 51-100 words: $25.00
• 101-250 words: $50.00
• 251 words and up: $100.00

Non-profits get lower pricing. How generous.

I’m not sure if each number count as a word, so I might owe the A.P. $12.50. Thankfully fair use still exists, no matter how much the A.P. likes to pretend otherwise (and benefit from for all for its articles).

The A.P. provides a helpful form for people to throw money at the not-for-profit organization (A.P. is non-profit, shocking, I know). You must paste the excerpt you wish to plagiarize, no more than 2,000 characters, and provide the URL. The A.P. wants to make sure its content is used wholesomely, so it “reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time if Publisher or its agents finds Your use of the licensed Content to be offensive and/or damaging to Publisher’s reputation.”

If the A.P. doesn’t like what you wrote, it can just cancel the agreement. I wonder if they give you your money back?