The FU stands for “Fair Use.” Mostly.

(Note: Jill of WLST, in a comment below, notes that Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine used “FU, AP” last Thursday. Thanks for the catch, as I had totally forgotten who used it.)

After its attempt to intimidate a web site excerpting its stories was exposed and led to blogospheric calls to stop linking to Associated Press stories, the wire service now says it will decide what “fair use” means (HT Captain Ed at Hot Air).

The Arrogant Pricks at AP act as if they alone can define what constitutes “fair use.” Horse manure. Last time I checked, the AP doesn’t own the First Amendment.

As I said, “FU, AP.”

_____________________________________________

UPDATE, 10 P.M.: Great point made by a Tech Crunch commenter:

The fundamental problem with the AP is much worse: They don’t link to the people who often discover the stories. Compared to that major violation of Internet ethics, the fair use stuff is minor.

By not linking, the AP is demonstrating a massive lack of principles.

If you really want to affect them though, get a bunch of bloggers not to link to papers that are members of the AP; not just AP stories.

Heaven forbid that anyone leave an AP story for a micro-second to go to a ….. blawwwwwwg!

AP has referred to work by yours truly several times without linking. The one that comes to mind immediately is the case of the resignation of Imam Ahmed Alzaree from the Islamic Center of Cleveland back in October 2007. The Arrogant Pricks’ headline read, “Blog critics force imam to resign at Ohio mosque.” It couldn’t POSSIBLY have had anything to do with what the man said and wrote. Of course, readers wouldn’t know because the Arrogant Pricks never linked back to source material from me or Patrick Poole — or even, for that matter, Cleveland Plain Dealer Wide Open blog posts I wrote at the time.

UPDATE 2, 10:30 p.m.: At the risk of overdoing the self-importance, I’m going to speculate that this BizzyBlog item, preceded by a couple of days at at Pajamas Media, along with a more comprehensive critique by Steve Boriss a few weeks earlier, might have contributed to the wire service’s current offensive.

This BizzyBlog/NewsBusters item probably didn’t sit well either. Too bad, so sad.

…. I had a Things I’d Like to Post About Today item that disappeared into thin air after I thought sure it was published.

Trust me, it was really good. :–>

I have no idea what happened to it.

As you were.

From Spalding, UK:

12 June 2008

Father’s Day this Sunday will be especially precious for one dad whose daughter was on the brink of death earlier this year after a horror car crash.

Stephanie Baker (18) was put into a coma with a ripped liver and doctors feared she would die following an horrendous accident on the A1 on February 24.

A Peugeot driven by her father Tony was pushed into a barrier between Grantham and Colsterworth by a van driver but no drivers stopped to help the stricken family.

Mr Baker (55) suffered eight fractured ribs in the accident but climbed out of the car and wove between lorries and trucks to fetch help for Stephanie and her mum Margaret, who was also trapped.

Stephanie believes her dad’s actions saved her life and she has shown her thanks in a special tribute to her father, who she describes as the “Greatest Dad in The World”, on page 36.

Spalding High School student Stephanie said: “I just wanted to put in a special Father’s Day message.

“We had just come back from a university open day at Hull when the accident happened.

“I was bleeding internally and my liver was split open. They airlifted me to Lincoln where I had surgery, before I was taken to Nottingham Queen’s (Medical Centre).

“I was in a coma for a week and it was very touch and go, to the point that my mum was told that I was going to die.”

Only child Stephanie has since made a steady recovery, although she has been told it will take three years to get back to full health and will have to postpone going to university for a year.

Mr Baker refused to be immediately admitted to hospital following the crash so he could stay with Stephanie. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.

I could not locate Stephanie’s tribute to her father online, so I believe it must have been print-only in the Spalding Guardian. If anyone locates it, I would appreciate getting an e-mail with a link.