Newspaper Copyright Law
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The communicator’s guide to newspaper copyright law Sponsored by Research & publication What is copyright? It is probably true that most people entering the public Or, instead, just hand the task over to a media minute recipe from Jamie Oliver’s latest book, just as you relations industry never think that copyright law will play a monitoring agency whose clippings service will not miss can’t tear out the cryptic crossword in the Daily Telegraph crucial role in their working lives, after all Patsy and Edina that tiny mention in the Ayrshire Post that everybody and bring it next door to the coffee shop. never mentioned it once in an episode of Ab Fab. But then laughed at when they saw it. We all cheered when James Dyson, inventor of the again, not many PR professionals spend their lives The PR agency is happy because the client is happy – eponymous vacuum cleaner, successfully sued the long- quaffing Bollinger! there’s no argument over fees; the client is happy because established vacuum manufacturers who had stolen his Yet from the moment that a PR professional launches a their boss is happy – his mother read his profile in The intellectual property and launched rival machines when his media relations campaign, the question of copyright Daily Mail and showed her friends; the media monitoring was but a start up business. Or when an unknown fashion arises. You will obviously want to see how many journalists agency is happy because they get paid for providing that student gains recognition from a retailer for reproducing followed the story, to analyse coverage from the first service; and the trainee is happy, because they get fast- their designs without permission. Reproducing content editions of the newspapers to the final, to read the tracked onto more interesting tasks and ultimately end up from a newspaper without permission may appear trivial, immediate online reaction and to get a sense of how running the agency. but it is no different from the Goliath business stealing successful the campaign has been. It is what could be described as a win, win scenario, isn’t ideas from the start out Davids. You’ll want to see cuttings and online coverage, it? But wait…the source of all this happiness is the From the moment that the media monitoring agency perhaps to demonstrate the value of the work and newspapers and their websites. The journalists were the sent the related articles to the PR agency, copyright laws creativity, and often you’ll ask your PR agency to provide targets of the campaign and their analyses have been read could be infringed unless the PR agency has acquired a these. and shared; surely the publishers, who pay their salaries, licence from the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), It seems a simple task, one that even a trainee could do. should be rewarded? which grants permission to copy from more than 1,400 Just buy every edition of every newspaper, cut out the Publishers own both newspaper and online content. It is newspapers. Similarly, if the client receiving the articles relevant articles and at the same time keep an eye on their intellectual property, their copyright. And it is wants to circulate them further it also needs a licence - it every update on each newspaper’s website. protected. You can’t go into WH Smith and photocopy a 15 simply cannot piggyback off its agency’s licence. But I used to be able to print off newspaper website content without a NLA licence. Why did that change? No one would deny that in the space of little more than a their online sites, offering readers the chance to this means that any commercial organisation that wishes A survey of both print and online content of ten decade, the Internet has transformed the media comment and share news as never before. to reproduce an article will require a licence or direct national titles, which the NLA conducted in September landscape. Newspaper publishers saw an opportunity to Online readership, at more than 78 million visitors permission from the relevant publisher. 2011, found that 56 per cent of print articles do not appear develop a new platform to distribute their content and every month, according to NewsShare, now exceeds Newspaper publishers asked the NLA to introduce a online. grow their readership. Such moves have been truly print readership. Publishers’ online sites are only going to Web End User Licence to generate appropriate copyright The survey considered coverage of 24 specific subjects transformational for some publishers, bringing a new and grow in functionality and content, and more money will revenue as reward for their investment. The licence was and found that, out of 591 articles, just 154 appeared in more diverse audience and opening up an overseas be needed. Some publishers are addressing this need initially expected to come into force on 1 January 2010, but both print and online. Indeed, 243 articles were specific to readership. It has also helped to keep newspapers relevant with the introduction of pay walls to ensure that readers was delayed by a legal challenge that has now been the web while 194 articles appeared in the newspapers but for a new generation who do not read printed materials pay for access. resolved. were not reproduced online. nor buy tabloids or broadsheets. But this rise in the volume of online content also The survey (which was the latest in a series) found that But, it is fair to say that, in the race to develop these prompted a rise in demand for online monitoring there has been a large increase in the number of web only platforms, most publishers struggled to find a viable services. New aggregator organisations were created to But isn’t the content the same in articles, particularly when it came to Guardian.co.uk, commercial model. It is equally fair to say that the early cope with this demand. Long standing media monitoring Telegraph.co.uk, DailyMail.co.uk and, to a lesser extent, online ‘newspapers’ were little more than a replication of agencies added online services to their portfolio. Initially the print and online version? FT.com. some or all of that day’s publication. nobody seemed to think about the publishing A similar survey of seven regional newspapers between Today, that has changed. The public has a voracious organisations that were creating this content and That is a common misconception. Publishers are investing 27 August and 9 September 2012 found that, out of 1,039 appetite for news, and newspapers are now changing tack investing millions to satisfy demand. millions into creating unique online content and many articles, just 120 appeared in both print and online. It found and breaking stories online rather than wait for the next Newspaper website content is protected by copyright articles, such as columns and features, are reserved simply that 680 articles were unique to the web and 293 articles day’s editions. They are investing millions of pounds into in the same way as print content. In its most basic form, for the print versions. appeared in print but not online. 2 The communicator’s guide to newspaper copyright law 3 What about the Financial Times? On 1 July 2010, the Financial Times introduced a new corporate licensing system and partially withdrew from the NLA. Companies who receive electronic access to both the FT newspaper and FT.com web content via a third party, such as a media monitoring organisation, require an FT Corporate Licence. This is available directly from the publisher. Without the licence, it is possible to view up to eight articles per month for free (subject to change by the Financial Times) if registered on FT.com. But the mandate for photocopying Financial What is the NLA? Times’ articles remains with the NLA. Any organisation that either receives or distributes The Newspaper Licensing Agency is a not-for-profit By acting collectively on behalf of the industry, the NLA photocopies of Financial Times’ articles will NLA by numbers organisation that was formed in 1996 by the UK’s can deliver value for money access to newspaper content. require a NLA licence. newspaper industry to make it easier for media monitoring More than 200,000 organisations rely on the NLA’s annual The NLA represents 22 national newspaper titles, agencies, PR agencies and in-house communications licences, database access and ClipSearch pay per use For more information visit www.ft.com/corporate 1,400 regional titles and more than 1,100 newspaper teams to reproduce articles with permission. service to share information. websites Prior to that date, any organisation that wished to Over the past 15 years, the NLA has distributed more Over 200,000 organisations rely on its annual reproduce articles was legally obliged to seek prior than £150 million in royalties to the publishers that it licences, database access and ClipSearch pay-per- permission from the publisher and possibly pay a fee that represents. These funds have been poured back into use service to share information would vary according to the publisher. newspapers, allowing them to maintain the standards of 80 per cent of all fee income generated by the This was a time consuming, fiddly process and there journalism that we have come to expect. In a typical year, NLA is paid straight back to the newspapers was no industry wide pricing model. Many organisations NLA income pays for 800 journalists’ salaries. £175 million in licence fees has been paid to simply did not bother to seek permission and publishers newspapers and £20 million has been invested by the were the losers.