At the end of June, Texas-based Internet retailer Woot—known for its "deal-a-day" model and distinctively jokey message board—was bought by Amazon. After The Associated Press reported Amazon's acquisition of Woot last week, Woot displayed it characteristic humor by calling out the wire service for quoting Woot CEO Matt Rutledge without properly compensating him. The Associated Press charges for the use of its content, including quotes.



MG Seigler at Tech Crunch—which enjoys a long-running spat with the AP over repurposing the tech blog's content—praised Woot in solidarity. "Gotta love those guys at Woot. They just sold to Amazon for $110 million, but that’s not stopping them from calling anyone out as they see fit," wrote Seigler:

In this case, we particularly love it because they’re calling out the AP — and they’re doing so right on their highly trafficked homepage. You see, Woot noticed that the AP covered the story of their sale five days ago. But in doing so, they also noticed that the AP used a number of quotes from CEO Matt Rutledge’s blog post about the sale. According to the AP’s own ridiculous rules for using quotations, Woot figures that the AP owes them $17.50.

Yes, Woot is letting the AP skip out on the money they owe if they simply buy a couple of the featured products today on Woot. Good idea. And they’re backing it up: “Don’t force us to pass this matter to a collection agency,” they write. Best of luck with those jokesters, Woot.

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