About 200 AP members are participating in the news registry beta that started last November; current plans call for a full rollout in July. The antitrust division’s ruling is based on AP’s description of the program, which is meant to give individual publications ways to track, license and distribute digital content through a common platform. AP has promised:

—to own all equity in the registry. A change in that could prompt further DOJ review.
—that participation is voluntary and inclusive.
—that access will not be exclusive and would not require a minimum commitment.
—publishers would not be limited to that registry alone and can choose which content to include.
—firewalls to keep non-public information from being shared between content owners.
—each participating content owner will set “unilaterally” its own licensing terms.
—that no content owner, including AP, will set or suggest licensing terms for any other.

This may assuage some concerns that the registry is an attempt to set prices or create a monolithic paywall.

AP BusinessLetter 03-31-10