In this corner, the Associated Press. In this corner, the entire blogosphere

The Register reports on AP's heavy-handed rebuke to The Drudge Report:

A major news agency has claimed that a blog's quotation of its stories is copyright infringement and has demanded they be taken down in a case which could redraw the lines of acceptable blog behaviour.

The writer behind the blog has told OUT-LAW.COM that if AP continues its case it will be taking on the entire blogosphere. "Linking to news articles with short excerpts is common practice throughout the web, both on individual blogs and on social news sites," said Rogers Cadenhead, who is behind blog Drudge Retort. "If AP intends to fight this one out, it'll be the case of AP v. Everybody."

Though a spokesman for AP has told The New York Times that the news wire is rethinking its position Cadenhead said that the notices have not actually been retracted yet.

There is a line between quoting an article and violating the copyright of the originator. If you quote several hundred words of an article, it's pretty clear that you're over that line. But in this instance, AP is objecting to the use of text as short as 33 to 79 words.

Clearly, this issue will be of great interest to anyone who's ever quoted an article from a major news outlet . . .