Public Relations Consultants Association Ltd v Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd

Last updated

Public Relations Consultants Association v The Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd ([2013] UKSC 18, on appeal from: [2011] EWCA Civ 890 ) was a 2011 case UK Supreme Court case decided in 2013. [1]

Contents

It essentially paralleled the US case Associated Press v. Meltwater , insofar as it considered the same questions and essentially the same nature of plaintiffs, and the same defendant, as the US case - namely whether media clippings business Meltwater Group was in breach of copyright by providing a paid clippings services from (copyrighted) news sources, to its clients.

The UK case, was decided by lower courts in favour of the NLA at the initial case and at appeal. The Court of Appeal ruled that 'most if not all' reports would be subject to copyright, and confirmed that headlines in bulk were also subject. One element was overturned by the UK Supreme Court who ruled users were entitled to view, but not print or copy, a hypothetical reduced Meltwater report without a licence. The practical effect at the end was that Meltwater and their clients took a licence. Certain questions referred to the European Court of Justice were intended to clarify matters of a cross-border nature. [2]

Issue

Meltwater Group operated a media monitoring service in which relevant results are shown to clients who pay Meltwater, but do not buy a license from a newspaper company or copyright service to read the brief extracts displayed to them by Meltwater (unless they wish to proceed and view the entire source article). NLA media access, part of the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), a licensing organization, introduced a license covering media monitoring services that crawl sites and offer paid-for services based on their filtered results. The majority of media monitoring agencies signed up for the new NLA web licence with the exception of Meltwater who argued no license was required by its clients for this purpose, and in conjunction with the PRCA referred the scheme to the Copyright Tribunal, and the matter was escalated. The case revolved around whether a client lacking a license would infringe copyright by being shown, and viewing, the extracts from copyrighted material in this way. (It was common ground that to subsequently view a full article would of course require a license.) NLA argued that for an end user to view indexed media, and viewable extracts, constituted 'copying' and re-use by the end user, and was therefore infringing. [3] [4]

Ruling

It was held that Meltwater's clients did not need a license to view copyright material on a computer as collated by Meltwater, on the rationale that:

  1. "Article 5.1 [of the European Directive Directive 2001/29/EC which covers "temporary copies" [1] : item 9, 11 ] is an exception to the copyright owner’s right to control the reproduction of his work. It necessarily operates to authorize certain copying which would otherwise be an infringement of the copyright owner’s rights." [1] : item 36 
  2. "[I]t has never been an infringement, in either English or EU law, for a person merely to view or read an infringing article in physical form. This state of affairs, which is recognised in the enumeration of the copyright owner’s rights in articles 2, 3 and 4 of the Directive, has never been thought inconsistent with a high level of protection for intellectual property." [1] : item 36  (Also noted was that to prohibit mere viewing would make infringers of millions of people who would be unaware or unable to prevent themselves from being shown, or temporary automated copies made, of such material, insofar as almost all online content is some person's copyright.)
  3. The court noted in its ruling, that earlier rulings were made without the benefit or citation of recent crucial cases such as Football Association Premier League Ltd v QC Leisure and Others (C-403/08, F.S.R. 495), Karen Murphy v Media Protection Services Ltd ('Premier League') (C-429/08, 1 CMLR 769), and Infopaq International A/S v. Danske Dagblades Forening ('Infopaq II') (Case C-302/10), which strongly informed the outcome. [1] : item 10 

In particular, the Murphy case had ruled that the transmission of copyrighted material through a network was legal regardless of the standing or authorization of the prospective end user (whomever it might be), and therefore temporary copies used for the technical purpose of communicating a copyright information was by implication also lawful provided the eventual act was lawful and certain other conditions were likely to be met. Since the 'eventual act' was mere viewing of copyright material, a lawful action under EU and UK law, the technical creation of temporary copies to enable that act, were also ruled lawful. [1] : item 16–17 

More exactly, it was a separable question, whether an end user might violate copyright in their copying of the material and whether the making of temporary copies to allow that user to view the material was itself a breach of copyright. An end user viewing the material was not of itself a copyright-breaching act (as mere viewing is not a copyright breach), therefore automated temporary copies for technical reasons, used to facilitate and enable that lawful act, were also to be deemed within the scope of EU law and lawful.

Parallel US case

A parallel case (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 21, 2013) filed on the same grounds in the United States, however, was decided the other way in 2013 (against Meltwater and in favor of the equivalent newspaper licensing business, in that case Associated Press) by a US district court. In that case, the Associated Press (AP) brought suit against Meltwater Group for clipping and sharing news items under copyright infringement and "hot news" misappropriation under New York common law. In a cross-motion for summary judgement, Meltwater argued they were not infringing under the requirements of fair use. Meltwater claimed that their service was transformative and therefore non-infringing on copyright. The court held that Meltwater's copying was not protected under the United States' "fair use" doctrine and was infringing on AP's copyright. [5] Subsequently, both the Associated Press and Meltwater dismissed all claims and counterclaims in July 2013. After the litigation, the Associated Press and Meltwater partnered to develop new products whose aim would be to benefit both companies. [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

In computer networks, download means to receive data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is sent to a remote server.

The first-sale doctrine is an American legal concept that limits the rights of an intellectual property owner to control resale of products embodying its intellectual property. The doctrine enables the distribution chain of copyrighted products, library lending, giving, video rentals and secondary markets for copyrighted works. In trademark law, this same doctrine enables reselling of trademarked products after the trademark holder puts the products on the market. In the case of patented products, the doctrine allows resale of patented products without any control from the patent holder. The first sale doctrine does not apply to patented processes, which are instead governed by the patent exhaustion doctrine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google News</span> News aggregator website and app

Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web.

Ripping is the extraction of digital content from a container, such as a CD, onto a new digital location. Originally, the term meant to rip music from Commodore 64 games. Later, the term was applied to ripping WAV or MP3 files from digital audio CDs, and after that to the extraction of contents from any storage media, including DVD and Blu-ray discs, as well as the extraction of video game sprites.

Software copyright is the application of copyright in law to machine-readable software. While many of the legal principles and policy debates concerning software copyright have close parallels in other domains of copyright law, there are a number of distinctive issues that arise with software. This article primarily focuses on topics particular to software.

A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law, all software is copyright protected, in both source code and object code forms, unless that software was developed by the United States Government, in which case it cannot be copyrighted. Authors of copyrighted software can donate their software to the public domain, in which case it is also not covered by copyright and, as a result, cannot be licensed.

In a series of legal disputes between SCO Group and Linux vendors and users, SCO alleged that its license agreements with IBM meant that source code IBM wrote and donated to be incorporated into Linux was added in violation of SCO's contractual rights. Members of the Linux community disagreed with SCO's claims; IBM, Novell, and Red Hat filed claims against SCO.

A media monitoring service, a press clipping service or a clipping service as known in earlier times, provides clients with copies of media content, which is of specific interest to them and subject to changing demand; what they provide may include documentation, content, analysis, or editorial opinion, specifically or widely. These services tend to specialize their coverage by subject, industry, size, geography, publication, journalist, or editor. The printed sources, which could be readily monitored, greatly expanded with the advent of telegraphy and submarine cables in the mid- to late-19th century; the various types of media now available proliferated in the 20th century, with the development of radio, television, the photocopier and the World Wide Web. Though media monitoring is generally used for capturing content or editorial opinion, it also may be used to capture advertising content.

MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled unanimously that the defendants, peer-to-peer file sharing companies Grokster and Streamcast, could be held liable for inducing copyright infringement by users of their file sharing software. The plaintiffs were a consortium of 28 entertainment companies, led by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Database Directive</span> Directive of the European Union regarding copyright law

The Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases is a directive of the European Union in the field of copyright law, made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. It harmonises the treatment of databases under copyright law and the sui generis right for the creators of databases which do not qualify for copyright.

Web scraping, web harvesting, or web data extraction is data scraping used for extracting data from websites. Web scraping software may directly access the World Wide Web using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol or a web browser. While web scraping can be done manually by a software user, the term typically refers to automated processes implemented using a bot or web crawler. It is a form of copying in which specific data is gathered and copied from the web, typically into a central local database or spreadsheet, for later retrieval or analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988</span> United Kingdom law

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law in the United Kingdom, which had, until then, been governed by the Copyright Act 1956 (c. 74). It also creates an unregistered design right, and contains a number of modifications to the law of the United Kingdom on Registered Designs and patents.

NLA media access is the collecting society for UK newspapers, a privately owned limited company. It undertakes collective rights management on behalf of its members and licenses companies, such as press cuttings agencies and media monitoring firms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 transpose the Information Society Directive "(Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society)",, into United Kingdom law. As such, its main effects are to modify the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 c. 48 with minor consequential modifications to other Acts and secondary legislation.

File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia, program files, documents or electronic books/magazines. It involves various legal aspects as it is often used to exchange data that is copyrighted or licensed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copyright infringement</span> Illegal usage of copyrighted works

Copyright infringement is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works. The copyright holder is typically the work's creator, or a publisher or other business to whom copyright has been assigned. Copyright holders routinely invoke legal and technological measures to prevent and penalize copyright infringement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Millennium Copyright Act</span> United States copyright law

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998, by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of online services for copyright infringement by their users.

Meltwater is an online media monitoring company. It is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The company was founded in Oslo, Norway, by Jørn Lyseggen, in 2001 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional offices across Europe, North America, Asia/Pacific, Australia, and Africa. The company employs around 2,200 people and has approximately 27,000 clients internationally. In February 2023, Meltwater reported $439 million USD in revenue for the full 2022 fiscal year.

Fox Broadcasting Co. v. Dish Network, LLC is a copyright case in which the United States District Court for the Central District of California, by granting partial summary judgment, denied most parts of the copyright claims presented by Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox) against Dish Network (Dish) for its service, a DVR-like device that allowed users to record programming that could be accessed later through any Internet-connected device. The service offered by Dish also allowed users to record any or all Fox's prime-time programs and to automatically skips commercials (AutoHop).

<i>Associated Press v. Meltwater U.S. Holdings, Inc.</i>

Associated Press v. Meltwater U.S. Holdings, Inc. was a district court case in which the Associated Press (AP) brought suit against Meltwater Group in U.S. (Meltwater) for clipping and sharing news items under copyright infringement and "hot news" misappropriation under New York common law. In a cross-motion for summary judgement, Meltwater argued they were not infringing under the requirements of fair use. Meltwater claimed that their service was transformative and therefore non-infringing on copyright. The court held that Meltwater's copying was not protected under the fair use doctrine and it was infringing on AP's copyright.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ↑ "62013Cj0360".
  3. ↑ Charlton, Graham (3 November 2009). "The NLA explains why it is going after the news aggregators". Econsultancy.com. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  4. ↑ Masnick, Mike (17 March 2010). "UK's Times Online Starts Blocking Aggregators Hours After Aggregators Win Copyright Tribunal Ruling Against Newspapers". Tech Dirt.
  5. ↑ "AP v. Meltwater" (PDF). Case. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "AP, Meltwater settle copyright dispute" (Press release). New York, NY.: The Associated Press. 29 July 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  7. ↑ Vaughan, Bernard. "AP, news aggregator Meltwater end copyright dispute" . Retrieved 12 July 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.