Does AP know how its YouTube channel works?

Updated April 9 at 10:55 a.m. PDT with AP comment.

Maybe the Associated Press can file this one under "That's news to me."

At least one representative of the venerable news agency, which recently declared that it was tired of the Internet riding on its coattails, was apparently unaware the agency had an official YouTube video channel.

The Associated Press' official YouTube channel includes codes for embedding videos on other sites.

(Credit: YouTube)

The AP recently sent a letter to WTNQ-FM in Tennessee--an affiliate of the Associated Press, by the way--accusing the country music radio station of copyright violation for embedding videos from the AP's official YouTube channel on its Web site, according to a station employee's blog. The AP channel includes embed code for its videos, which allows any Web site or blog to embed the videos on their sites--a feature that can be turned off.

Separately, on Monday the Associated Press said that it would go after news aggregators and other Web sites that "walk off with our work under misguided legal theories."

Frank Strovel, WTNQ's operations manager, writes in a blog that the station received the following message from the AP's regional radio representative in Chicago:

I noticed you are posting our video content with out a license and have to ask you to remove the AP video content from the site ASAP. If you would like to know more about our web services please contact me.

"Not exactly a cease and desist letter, but the point is the same," Strovel said.

Strovel, who said he was "stunned" by the letter, called the representative to discuss the matter. Here is Strovel's version of how the conversation went:

I said, "How is it a violation of a license agreement if you are actively posting the video on YouTube--on a channel you specifically created to share content--with embed codes for people to post in their websites? Are you telling me that you put it there for people to use......but if they USE IT they're violating your rights?"

The basic reply was, "Well, I'll have to investigate that issue further but in the meantime you need to pull all of our videos off your site."

Strovel said he pulled the videos on Tuesday but called the representative back on Wednesday for answers to his questions.

"He still had no answer as to why they are posting content on YouTube for embedding when it's apparently a crime to do so," Strovel said. "I still want an answer to my original question and so far they are baffled and cannot give me one. They actually seemed to act like they didn't even know they had a YouTube channel!"

An AP representative on Thursday characterized the episode as a "misunderstanding."

"There was a misunderstanding of YouTube usage when the Tennessee radio station was contacted by the Associated Press regarding the AP's more extensive online video services," Paul Colford, the AP's director of media relations, said in a statement provided to CNET News. "No cease and desist letter was drafted or sent by AP to the station at any time. The AP was trying to offer the station a superior service for their needs."

News of the exchange began spreading Tuesday after Strovel Twittered about the station's predicament. The news was picked up by the Knoxville News and then by local video producer Christian Grantham, who conducted the following video interview with Strovel:

[Via TechCrunch]

[QuetzalcoatlUSA]

Clearly a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. My advice: avoid talking to executives. That was probably his first mistake. Executives rarely know what the hell is going on.

[gggg sssss]

Th eclueless leading the dim witted

[mattumanu]

You know what's even better than they don't know they have a youtube channel? You wanna know what's worse than them not knowing how youtube works? They don't just have a youtube channel, they are a youtube partner! You have to jump through some hoops to get that, and someone absolutely has to communicate with youtube about becoming a youtube partner.

AP, you people are stupid. Over 16,000 videos on their youtube partner channel, all with embed code enabled, and they don't know how the internet works? Are they serious?

[mementh]

whats worse they don't know they can block video's from being embedable. :/

[HlLLARY CLITON]

The AP is dying a slow death, someone needs to put them out of their misery

[mattumanu]

What? They aren't dying a slow death. You may be dying from hypoxia of the brain, but they aren't dying a slow death. Their revenue was up last year, they are doing just fine.

The problem is they are being stupid.

[unknown unknown]

They won't be doing fine if they continue to pull stunts like this.

[colamix]

I agree. Both Google News and Youtube should cut them off dry. Who needs the AP.

[n3td3v]

Hilarious.

[Hunnter2k3]

Seconded.

I'm nearly in tears laughing at this.

[JerzeyRich]

I guarantee you that someone feels really stupid right now. In the meantime, they're trying to figure out what kind of excuse to put into a statement that will make them seem less stupid. I got news for the AP (Hah!): Too late!

[TV James]

You can't feel stupid if you are too stupid to know you're stupid as AP clearly is in this case.

[ofmyony]

They better stay off the web. We don't want the AP here because they are clueless. I have never seen a company running off a cliff as fast as the Associated Press. If they link to this story I am going to send them a cease and desist. Take that link down you are infringing on my freaking rant. This rant is only for the sober and not the sniffing legal staff of the AP.

[gerrrg]

Ha! That's classic clueless.

[Maccess]

OMG! I watched an AP News Report on Youtube.com, then I e-mailed a friend the link! Oh, my, oh, my! I could get a cease and desist order anyday!

[Maccess]

Well, we don't want to get into any legal trouble over this, so we're going to tell our IT managers to block AP's news channel, and filter all e-mails for URLs linking to AP's material so employees can't send their contacts links to AP articles.

We're too busy with the global slowdown that we can't be bothered to handle cease and desist letters for telling someone about a story they heard or read from AP. Duh.

[explorer5]

Sounds to me like another RIAA - a major company that really doesn't understand the internet and is scared by it. If the AP continues to try to remove its content from the internet, then it will coast into oblivion - the internet is quickly outpacing newspapers for news content, and trust me - the last place im going to visit for news is AP.com

[monkeyfun14]

You know me too considering ap.com is a site that sells audio precision instruments.

[shardsofmetal]

Wow, are they really that stupid? If only they read some of the internet-related AP news articles, maybe they would've known how uploading videos to YouTube works. And as mattumanu pointed out above, they are even a YouTube partner. You'd think they would've read that agreement. I guess that means the AP like to write, not read.

[JayWes]

So tell me dear souls; who has read all the long-winded legalese privacy agreements. i don't except a rush of yes answers. (Don't nobody ask me if I have -ask me no questions, i'lll tell you no lies.)

[jonnykk]

The major news networks really need to pick up this story. it's absolutely hilarious
They habe 16,000 videos on the internet, with codes to embed them
and they want to go after people who embed them?
sheesh

[kenstech_com]

Old media just doesn't get the internet. They are still stuck in a 19th century model of content creation distribution. There was nothing illegal in what the station did. Per YouTube's TOS, if you post the video on your channel and make it publically distributable, you have no grounds to complain that it becomes distributed publically.

Ken
www.kenStech.com

[inachu1]

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!! A site like youtube that "IS" a video sharing site say people are not allowed to share the videos? Seems the AP needs then to fire some people or go to school.

[aMUSICsite]

I guess the golden rule is...

If you want to post news from another source pick someone other than AP every time you can. I can't see how that is going to make AP shareholders happy though

[dpeters11]

There are too many still clueless. It reminds me of a situation I ran into when I was almost brought before a discipline hearing at my University for copyright infringement. I'd posted links to the front page of several news and search sites on the computer lab home page without written permission from those companies. I was almost looking forward to it.

[pablosurfs]

Memo from AP Veep:

Henderson,

Get us on those new FaceTube things that all the kids are talking about!

[CMGeorge]

I'm fairly certain the AP knows that they run a YouTube channel. That's not the problem. The AP is probably also just fine with normal, everyday people embedding the AP video on their blogs and websits and such, hence leaving the embed code active.

The problem is that the AP wants any affiliates who want to host AP video on their websites to subscribe to a paid video service. You can see an example of this paid service on many newspaper websites - it looks quite different from a simple YouTube embed. It is entirely possible that until this radio station did what they did in embedding YouTube videos, that the AP didn't put two and two together and realize there was nothing in the affiliate agreement that prevented them from doing what this radio station did and embedding the YouTube videos instead of the AP video service, and avoiding paying an extra fee to the AP.

The "youtube problem," as the AP guy put it, is not that the YouTube videos are out there and can be embedded; it is how the AP can prevent the AP affiliates from embedding the videos while allowing everyone else to do so.

[HighCaliber]

So what is the point of being an affiliate? Is it just to get the inside scoop before any one else does? It's not right to make the affiliate pay for the service when joe-blow can just embed the video on his site for nothing. You either share the videos or you don't...

[ThePrairiePrankster]

This is what makes America great!