A story on page C7 of today’s New York Times caught my eye, “The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles.”  According to the story, the A.P. is

going to challenge blog postings containing excerpts of A.P. articles “when we feel the use is more reproduction than reference, or when others are encouraged to cut and paste.”

The A.P. action is being taken following a dispute with the Drudge Retort.  The Times story suggests that the A.P. effort “may offer a prominent definition of the important but vague doctrine of ‘fair use,’ . . . “  Law professor Tim Wu is quoted as saying, “[t]he principal question is whether the excerpt is a substitute for the story, or some established adaptation of the story.”

Update:  Drudge Retort Considers Lawsuit Against AP  The Media Post Publications story quotes Anthony Falzone from the Stanford Law School Fair Use Project:

Anthony Falzone, executive director of that project, said the material that had been posted to Drudge Retort did not appear to infringe the wire service’s copyright. “The AP’s position is rather startling,” he said. “They (Drudge Retort) use very small snippets of Associated Press stories to generate discussion on the Web site about the issues. That would seem to be a rather clear fair use.”