We the undersigned, representing publishers and writers across the blogosphere, wish to leave no doubt as to our opinion on the recent Associated Press move to unilaterally impose financial restrictions (under the threat of legal action) on the excerpting of AP material in online publications including weblogs.

While we certainly encourage dialogue between the AP and individual bloggers or organizations such as the Media Bloggers Association, it is clear that no such discussions should be misconstrues or misrepresented as constituting any sort of negotiation, mediation or brokering of a guidelines that would retreat from established "fair use" practices for such excerpting.

We believe the attempts to institute fees for excerpting contextual quotes of as few as six words, and any related attempts to coerce such a fundamental change through legal threat or intimidation, are in direct defiance of the spirit of quoting, linking, commenting, excerpting and other forms of free speech that have become part of the tradition of blogging and editorializing online.

The current fair use paradigm is a pillar of bloggers' fundamental rights, and fundamental rights are not now, nor will they ever be, open to negotiation.

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