[LINK] Aggregator agrees deal to pay for UK online news links

[Jan Whitaker]

Hi Sylvano
neither of those links worked for me. The first 
never appeared and the second said the page wasn't there.

It's an interesting assertion that links are 
copyrighted material. I wanted to learn more 
about that comment. Finally got it via a proxy 
(below for others' benefit). It appears that the 
aggregator was scraping and selling what they scraped.
Jan


The Copyright Tribunal has delivered a final 
decision bringing to an end a costly battle over 
the right of news aggregators to exploit online content.

The decision means that news monitoring company 
Meltwater now accepts paying charges to sell on 
links and headlines which it has scraped from UK news websites.

The legal battle dates from January 2010 when the 
Newspaper Licensing Agency first sought to impose 
licences on companies which sell on aggregated 
news headlines to paying clients.

The Copyright Tribunal ruling will allow the NLA 
to impose its planned fees backdated between 2010 
and 2012 and new – slightly lower than planned – fees after 2012.

The fees are around £10,000 for the aggregator 
(ie Meltwater) and then 5p per link for the end 
user, or a fixed annual fee depending on the size 
of company. (JW emphasis added)

The legal battle, pursued through the civil 
courts and the Copyright Tribunal, is thought to 
have cost the NLA and Meltwater around £2m each.

The latest development means the UK newspaper 
industry can start collecting fees from online 
media monitoring worth around £1m to £1.5m a year.

But more significantly for the future of UK 
journalism, it upholds the principle that online 
news headlines and links are copyright material.

This could pave the way for the UK press to take 
a tougher line in future with free news aggregators such as Google.

NLA won its case at the Appeal Court in 2011 but 
Meltwater is still set to take one aspect of it 
to the Supreme Court. It argues that aggregation 
should be covered by the copyright exception for 
the temporary copying of internet files. (not 
sure that would fly since the temporary was put 
there for the technical needs of ISPs and 
temporary caching on end user equipment IIRC)


 From February:
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=48761

Ruling allows press to charge online news aggregators

15 February 2012

By 
<https://s9-us2.ixquick-proxy.com/do/spg/proxy?ep=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&epile=4q6n41784q6n41314q5467774q4638794r7935725n586o3q&edata=f70170e5e60419aa4cfda5ffb668da0c>Dominic 
Ponsford

The Copyright Tribunal has upheld the right of 
the British newspaper industry to charge those 
who aggregate online content and then sell it on to third parties.

In the short-term it means that the British press 
can gather licensing fees which have been 
estimated at between £1m and £2m a year to those 
who aggregate online content and then sell it on to paying customers.



At 05:01 AM 18/05/2012, sylvano you wrote:
>"But more significantly for the future of UK 
>journalism, it upholds the principle that online 
>news headlines and links are copyright material."
>
>http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=49340&c=1
>
>(Source: http://twitter.com/evgenymorozov/status/203195242596417537)
>
>Regards
>Sylvano
>_______________________________________________
>Link mailing list
>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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