The AP announced yesterday that it was going to take “all actions necessary” to stop ISPs from pirating news content and streaming it across their sites, raising copyright concerns about the terms of “fair use”.

In an attempt to save their tumbling profits, hold off bankruptcies and defend their current business models, the newspapers are going for the big guns/deep pockets.

Its like watching dinosaurs fight with cockroaches.

Did I just say that?

This is the worst kind of defense in the war of survival of the fittest. Don’t these newspapers realize that they are fighting for their existence? Its like the captain of the Titanic trying to use his compass to gain his bearings as his ship sinks down into the deep, icy waters.

The AP is now reversing a decision they made 10 years ago that allowed ISPs to use their content for free. Now AP claims to be developing a rights-managed system that will rival Google and Yahoo’s news channels.

I think it is all too much a little too late.

More than 14,000 journalists have been laid off over the last 2 years. Just where do the newspapers think these journalists went–perhaps online to write news content?

The AP just announced war.

Brave, perhaps, but misguided. Because someone is going offend them and then the AP is going to sue an ISP and waste what precious money they have left paying for lawyers, law firms, discovery, trial time and appeals.

If all those laid off journalists were smart, they’d start their own, independent news source and sell their services to Google and Yahoo. Now there’s using your noggin!

Because you know that this war isn’t going to end well.