2012 · 30 citations · 0 references
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LawIntellectual Property LawCopyright InfringementCopyright LawIntellectual PropertyFair UseIntellectual Property ProtectionIntellectual Property RightsMedia EthicsNews MediaOnline Copyright InfringementCopyright Enforcement OnlineCopyright Infringement On Digital PlatformsFair Use RightsLicensing Of The PressNews Media RegulationOnline Content PiracyOnline Content ProtectionRobots Exclusion Protocol
In the 1918 Supreme Court case that gave rise to the common law doctrine of "hot news" misappropriation, the Associated Press (AP) famously sued the International News Service (INS), a competing newswire, for copying factual content from AP news stories without crediting the AP.' Nearly a century has passed, and the AP is going after a news collection service again.In February 2012, the AP filed suit against Meltwater News, an online "news aggregator," for copyright infringement and "hot news" misappropriation.'On their face, the two cases present nearly identical issues, down to the same plaintiff.But times have changed-and so should the law.The current suit is only the latest in a rash of recent copyright and hot news litigation' aimed at combatting news aggregators, or websites and mobile applications that digitally copy headlines and short excerpts of news stories from various Internet sources and display them all in one place. 4 In light of the 1.Int'l News Serv.v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215 (1918).News disseminators enjoy a quasiproperty right in news facts (commonly referred to as "hot news"), "until [their] commercial value as news ... has passed away."Id. at 245.