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Commercial news article links ruling could see online users 'unwittingly' infringe copyright

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

July 27, 2011 | 3 min read

A ruling by the UK Court of Appeal could see millions of people, who click on a link and read a public news article on a commercial website, infringe copyright, unless they have a license from its publisher, the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) has said.

A judgment delivered today in Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) V Meltwater & PRCA, could prove to be a costly one for businesses, as a court has ruled that displaying a web page on a computer is not exempt from copyright, which could mean that professionals browsing the web could infringe copyright.

The NLA introduced a licensing scheme for Media Monitoring Organisations in 2009, who wish to use content for member websites, as well as their clients. This proposal meant that organisations with employees who receive or forward emails with links to newspaper website, alongside media monitoring services, will need a licence to do so.

Technology firm Meltwater and the PCRA challenged the proposal, and are now set to seek permission to appeal.

“The ability to browse the Internet without fear of infringing copyright is a fundamental Internet principle,” said Jorn Lyseggen, CEO of Meltwater. “Society is not served by this ruling and it would be absurd if interpretation of the law should clash so fundamentally with how millions of people use the internet every day.”

The judgment did however modify the former ruling by the High Court over the copyright of headlines.

Francis Ingham, chief executive of the PCRA; added: “We welcome the Court of Appeal recognising that the High Court judgment went further than was warranted when it comes to the copyright of news article headlines. The Court of Appeal ruled that it will be very rare that headlines are copyrightable, which is something we've been saying from the start,” said Francis Ingham, Chief Executive of the PRCA. “Going back hundreds of years, no court has ever found a title worthy of copyright protection."

“Last word in this case has not been said,” continued Lyseggen. “In September, the Copyright Tribunal is scheduled to rule on the fairness of the licensing scheme pushed by the NLA. We are confident that the Copyright Tribunal will rule the NLA licensing scheme is over-reaching and unreasonable.”

The ruling is likely to force MMO's to handover information on their clients in order that the NLA will be able to pursue them.

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