Ya gotta hand it to the AP, an organization obviously led by brains and class.

Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.

Note that they didn’t harrass the appropriately monickered Matt Drudge, but a left-wing Retort to him. I’ve just visited it for the first time, and you can see why AP is upset: some of the entries are at least seven words long, and apparently taken from the actual headline of the article linked to.

Of course it’s clear, even to the brains at AP, that they don’t have a reasonable legal case. They’re not being harmed economically by 79-word quotations and links to the original (a basic test under the fair-use doctrine), and they admit they’d probably lose in court if they went there.

Having received a certain amount of pushback, AP backed off for a regrouping. According to Jim Kennedy, VP and strategy director, “We don’t want to cast a pall over the blogosphere by being heavy-handed, so we have to figure out a better and more positive way to do this”.

My suggestion: if they’re honest about not casting a pall, they might cease producing garbage like today’s “Blame for Spears’ pap hit-run on the other foot”. I’m not holding my breath.