NLA win links licence case round one

CORPORATE COMMS NEWS BITE: The PR industry has suffered a setback in its attempt to challenge the online licences being enforced by the Newspaper Licensing Agency, though the cuttings company taking the initiative on this, Meltwater, says it is only a temporary set back.

As previously reported, under copyright law PR or cuttings agencies, or in-house communication departments, that make copies of newspaper articles to distribute to clients or staff need a licence to do so, even when the articles are about the client or company. Such a licence is available from the NLA, which represents eight newspaper owners.

In the physical newspaper and photocopier world this isn’t especially controversial (well, not anymore), but increasingly PR and cuttings agencies don’t provide photocopied cuttings, instead sending a list of relevant headlines and links to where clients can find the full article online. But the NLA insists that that needs a licence too. The PR and cuttings sectors do not agree.

Meltwater are taking the matter to the Copyright Tribunal, the special court that considers disputes between the licencees and licensors of copyright material. But while that goes through the motions the NLA took Meltwater to the High Court over the issue, and that’s where the set back occurred.

The London court last week ruled that a copyright did, indeed, still exist in the headlines being provided in link lists, and therefore some sort of licence was still required from the NLA.

Needless to say, the newspaper industry welcomed the ruling. Meltwater admitted it was disappointed with the outcome, but insisted this court case was really a distraction, and that it’s the Tribunal hearing, currently schedule for February, that everyone should focus on. Nevertheless it does plan to appeal last week’s ruling.

Meanwhile Francis Ingham of the PR Consultants Association, who have backed Meltwater in their efforts on the links licence, tweeted: “Whatever end result of #PRCA & Meltwater case vs NLA I’m proud we alone stood up to them – everybody else chickened out”.

Meltwater argue that claiming anyone who provides headlines and links to newspaper articles in the course of their business needs a licence has major ramifications on every day use of the internet.

Posted Thursday December 2 2010 by Chris Cooke