News warns Mail: stop lifting or we’ll sue THE AUSTRALIAN JUNE 09, 2014 12:00AM Sharri Markson Media Editor Sydney Look familiar? How the Daily Mail treated a story previously featured in the Daily Telegraph. THE Daily Mail Online’s Australian arm could face a lawsuit if it does not stop blatantly lifting content from News Corp Australia newspapers. News Corp Australia’s lawyers sent Mail Online’s owner, Associated Newspapers, its directors and its immediate publisher Martin Clarke a legal letter on Friday, threatening to sue for breach of copyright and intellectual property rights unless it provided a legal undertaking by Thursday this week to cease and desist from copying original content produced by News Corp journalists. The British Daily Mail newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre, was copied into the legal letter, along with Mail Online’s Australian editor, Luke McIlveen, The letter included about 10 specific and representative examples of Mail Online, which launched in Australia in January, appropriating articles from newspapers such as Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, Brisbane’s The Courier-Mail and Adelaide’s The Advertiser . In most cases, Daily Mail Online, which is a partnership between Nine’s digital arm Mi9 and the Daily Mail Trust, provided only a single attribution before large parts of the story, and in some cases the accompanying graphics were reproduced on the website under another journalist’s byline. On June 1, The Daily Telegraph’s sports editor-at-large, Phil Rothfield, exclusively revealed that former Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe was out of rehabilitation and would be a commentator at the Commonwealth Games. Mail Online ripped off the story almost word for word, publishing the precise quotes that Rothfield, a journalist with 37 years’ experience, had obtained from Thorpe’s manager. While there was one hyperlink to The Sunday Telegraph in the fourth paragraph, Rothfield was not credited and the quotes he had obtained were published under the byline of another journalist with far less experience. The Daily Mail Online also copied Rothfield’s exclusive articles on Sonny Bill Williams’s secret wedding, a story attracting high online traffic for the Telegraph, and on Shane Warne’s new girlfriend. Graphic: The great Daily Mail robbery In another example, The Sunday Telegraph’s fashion editor Prue Lewington wrote a story on May 25 on “the best dress a woman can own”. The Daily Mail Online copied the story, using a similar dress and graphic, but attributed it to another reporter, who does not have the the same indepth experience in the fashion industry as Lewington does. Lewington told The Australian she has worked in the fashion industry for almost 20 years, starting her career at US Harper’s Bazaar before working at the New York Post, Daily News and Nylon magazine, plus a stint with Patricia Field at Sex and the City. From its inception, a seemingly simple fashion story such as this one would likely have required the input of six Telegraph staff members: a chief of staff, the fashion editor who organised the shoot and wrote the story, the photographer, a graphic artist, a layout producer and a sub-editor. Adding to the insult is the fact that The Daily Telegraph’s content sits behind a metered paywall, while the Daily Mail Online rip-off of the Telegraph’s journalism is free. The Daily Telegraph’s editor Paul Whittaker said he believed Mail Online’s blatant and systematic lifting of substantial parts of Telegraph articles was well beyond what a court would allow as fair dealing in reporting the news. “They might acknowledge the source of a story on occasion but that does not give them carte blanche to take reams of our reporting,’’ he said. “The Mail Online has serious form on these issues worldwide and it seems they are bringing that same low-rent brand of journalism to Australia. They are acting like copy snatchers and parasites who live off real reporters’ legwork and dedication.” Whittaker said that while the Mail boasted it would hire dozens of journalists to break stories, “in reality they are mainly ‘breaking’ our stories and, in turn, the spirits of their young reporting staff by forcing them to work on a production line of copycats.” This was not only an issue for News Corp Australia, said The Sunday Telegraph’s editor, Mick Carroll, but for all Australian media companies that invest time and money in creating journalism. “Our reporters are the best at what they do,’’ Carroll said. “They have spent decades cultivating contacts, building trust and developing expertise, and it is offensive their work is being devalued by a team of aggregators whose greatest skill is the cut and paste.” This is not the first time Daily Mail Online has come under attack for plagiarising content. The issue arose last December when Britain’s Mail Online pinched a Sunday Mirror exclusive interview by Sharon Feinstein with Nelson Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe Mandela-Amuah. Feinstein was furious when her words appeared in Mail Online under someone else’s byline. “It’s ironic, isn’t it, that I was writing about Mandela, who stood up to oppression, and that the Mail, the bullies of Fleet Street, ripped off my interview. It’s journalist oppression and it’s got to stop,” she told The Guardian. The Guardian’s columnist Roy Greenslade, a former editor of London’s Daily Mirror, called for Dacre and Clarke to create a set of guidelines to cover versions of articles first published by other outlets. “Is Mail Online ever going to put its house in order? Does it care about plagiarism? Has its editor, Martin Clarke, ever explained the meaning of common journalistic courtesy — let alone copyright — to his staff?” In the case of great news exclusives, Greenslade suggested that Mail Online run only a couple of paragraphs and then include a hyperlink to the original story. .