And here is the kicker, the newswire told an AP affiliate not to use its videos on it’s YouTube subscription channel, which have an embed code.

The saga started yesterday when Frank Strovel of WTNQ-FM 104.9 in Lafollete, Tennessee was sent a cease and desist letter from the Associated Press regarding the embedded videos on the station’s website.

The issue is that WTNQ is an AP member. And so it began, as Strovel made various phone calls to the Associated Press asking what the deal was. The YouTube videos on the AP subscription channel have embed codes on each one for anyone to use.

And WTNQ had a licensing fee with the Associated Press anyway.

Michael Silence saw the importance of the story yesterday afternoon during an exchange between our own Scott Adcox and Strovel on Twitter and posted the information on his blog No Silence Here.

Strovel wrote yesterday afternoon on Twitter:

FrankStrovel@sadcox They asked us to taken them down. I asked, “Why do you have a YouTube page w/ embed codes for websites?” Still… they said NO.

Strovel reported this morning on the Morning Browser hosted by Christian Grantham in a Skype interview that when he spoke to the vice-president of AP affiliates, that the staff member would have to “look into it.”

Apparently, this is one of the first instances to appear on the Tennessee radar as the New York Times is reporting that the Associated Press wants more control.

Taking aim at the way news is spread across the Internet, The Associated Press said on Monday that Web sites that used the work of news organizations must obtain permission and share revenue with them, and that it would take legal action against those that did not.

A.P. executives said they were concerned about a variety of news forums around the Web, including major search engines like Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report that link to news articles, smaller sites that sometimes reproduce articles whole, and companies that sell packaged news feeds.

They said they did not want to stop the appearance of articles around the Web, but to exercise some control over the practice and to profit from it.

H/T Jack Lail

The question comes down to why the AP would send a cease and desist letter to one of it’s own affiliates? Why would AP upload videos with embeddable code to YouTube for use anywhere, and then draft a letter such as this?

Strovel said one of his arguments back to the executive he spoke to yesterday was that the station had never had any problems such as this when they utilized CNN.

The Associated Press might want to take heed of that message regarding competitors such as CNN.

He also reported this morning that he would have a copy of the cease and desist letter available this afternoon and a statement on the how the radio station is dealing with this development.

Strovel’s personal blog is Left of the Dial.

You can also follow his FriendFeed here.

Amazing.

More as the story progresses …

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Similar Posts:

• More On The AP And YouTube Videos
• Strovel’s side of the AP YouTube Controversy
• Say What?
• The New Normal
• Ouch!

On Monday night, Scott Adcox and Trace Sharp (yes, that would be me) appeared on the DontgoMovement radio network on a show hosted by Ken Marrero of Blue Collar Muse fame.

It was an hour-long blog talk radio show where we were interviewed about NewsTechZilla, our long-term plans and what we are trying to do with this new project.

If you want to listen, you can find the broadcast here at Blog Talk Radio Tonight at The Don’t Go Show.Similar Posts:

• Pimping NewsTechZilla
• Pimping NewsTechZilla-ktownlowdown Style
• Caring About Your Customers
• Just Do It
• Is Your Newsroom Using Twitter? Effectively?