From the NYT's Bits blog (June 20):

The Associated Press has punted on its commitment to clarify how much text it thinks bloggers and social news sites can reprint from its articles without violating The AP’s copyright. Indeed, the giant news organization appears to be insisting that bloggers cannot quote the headline of an A.P. story or its first paragraph. While the law is not settled, many lawyers suggest that such short excerpts are permitted under the “fair use” exception to the copyright laws.

The issue came up after The A.P. — a not for profit group of 1,500 newspapers, including The New York Times — demanded that the Drudge Retort remove 10 posts that quoted between 40 and 80 words of its articles. After a storm of protest, The A.P. backed down and said it had been too heavy-handed in its initial complaint. It added that it hoped to publish guidance for bloggers suggesting how they can use A.P. content.

On Thursday night, The A.P. published a statement saying that it had reached an accord with Rogers Cadenhead, the owner of the Drudge Retort (a parody of the better known Drudge Report): “Both parties consider the matter closed.” There was no word on any guidelines for other sites.

The full A.P. statement didn’t offer any relevant facts and was so convoluted that it’s hard to imagine anyone writing that way could get hired as a reporter at The A.P.

That's how much time U.S. networks have devoted to covering the Iraq War in the first six months of 2008. For context, they spent 1,157 minutes on war coverage in 2007.

I speak, of course, of Italy in Euro 2008.

When I got to Bathurst and College, overtime had just ended.

I got to my old haunts of College and Clinton in time to watch the shootout (the strip was swarming with fellow soccer tourists).

Unfortunately for Italy, the feet and legs of Spain's kickers were better than the reflexes and instincts of Italian goaltender Gianluigi Buffo.

Spain drove home four goals (with one complete miss) to Italy's two. Buffon only had one save. Iker Casillas, Spain's netminder, had two.

Here's the BBC game report.

The final four are Germany vs. Turkey and Russia vs. Spain.

I will go out on a limb and predict a Germany-Spain final in one week, with Germany taking the title.

Sorry, Germany.

PS

The cops were discretely ready for post-game rowdiness in Little Italy. They had the cavalry on standby a few blocks south of College on Ossington.