CBC_Logo_1992-PresentIn 2008, we covered a story about the Associated Press claiming that bloggers needed to buy licenses to quote more than ten words, then hastily backpedalling into a murky area of refusing to say how much was all right to quote.

It turns out that Canada has been going through something similar. TechDirt posts that last week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) came out with a new set of rules intending to “bring some clarity and some consistency” and make the rules “as unambiguous as possible.”

However, as TechDirt points out, the actual effect was to do exactly the opposite, because the rules seemed to state that any quoting of stories by bloggers was not permitted.

Now the CBC is hastily attempting to clarify what it meant, claiming that it is, in fact, all right for bloggers to quote the CBC, even though this directly contradicts the rules as laid down on their site. The CBC representatives say they will be reviewing the terms in light of public objections.

It seems to be fairly common now for media organizations to try to put limits on fair use. We’ve seen this with the AP, with Murdoch and Cuban’s claims of news aggregator freeloading, and now with the CBC. Where will it all end?

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