AP: Drudge Retort matter ‘closed’

The Associated Press has issued a vague statement surrounding its bizarre attempt to remove short excerpts of its content from the Drudge Retort. It says the AP provided additional content to the Drudge Retort “aimed at enabling Mr. Cadenhead to bring the contributed content on his site into conformance with the policy he earlier set for his contributors. Both parties consider the matter closed.” The statement goes on to say that the AP spoke with some bloggers about it, and the “resolution of the matter illustrates that the interests of bloggers can be served while still respecting the intellectual property rights of news providers.” Meanwhile, everyone continues to beat up on the AP — TechCrunch is even issuing the AP a takedown order for a TechCrunch quote that appeared on the wire. And the LA Times published an opinion saying the AP “pulled a Metallica online,” which is to say, illustrated its “cluelessness about the internet.”