Because single newsstand copies of papers don't sell, because advertisements aren't being sold, and because subscription revenue is down, the Associated Press, along with legions of papers, are in the middle of finding a way to charge bloggers for taking their stories. Great.

Under the old fair use laws, snippets or portions of an article can be used by other publications/blogs. Sometimes articles are reprinted in whole (see: Huffington Post) which can lead to some nasty situations. AP is working to make it so that news aggregators would have to pay papers to "bundle" up the news for Internet consumption.

The A.P. will “work with portals and other partners who legally license our content” and will “seek legal and legislative remedies against those who don’t,” the A.P. chairman, William Dean Singleton, said Monday in a speech at the group’s annual meeting, in San Diego. “We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories.”

See that small text? That's a direct quote from The Times, which currently I am allowed to use for free! In a couple months time though, even referencing that article using the same language could end up with a hefty fine unless you pay to have a license.

On the one hand, forcing blogs to cough up would be a good source of revenue for papers, if blogs made that much money, which they don't. On the other, having the Associated Press turn to methods used mostly by stalkerazzi agencies isn't exactly putting the news in the hands of the people…it's putting the news in the hands of the people who can afford it.