UK Court Confirms that Copyright Exists in Headlines

An English court has held that newspaper headlines and extracts may be protected by copyright. The Newspaper Licensing Agency Limited (NLA), a content licensing agency, and six major news publishers sued Meltwater Holding BV, Meltwater News UK Limited (together, Meltwater) and the Public Relations Consultants Association Limited (PRCA) for copyright infringement. Meltwater provides PRCA members with a commercial media monitoring service called Meltwater News. The service consists of the article headline, the opening words of the article, an extract from the article that includes a keyword, and a hyperlink to the article. The main issue in the case was whether, in order to avoid copyright infringement, PRCA members require a licence from the NLA to use the service. In considering the issue, the Court relied on Infopaq, a decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) previously reported by E-TIPS® (“European Court Rules That Extracting Snippets May Infringe Copyright”, Vol 8, No 4, August 12, 2009). In that case, the ECJ determined that copyright exists in an article extract if the extraction includes elements which are the expression of the intellectual creation of the author. In the instant case, the Court first determined that there is considerable skill involved in devising headlines that entice and inform the reader of the article’s subject matter in an entertaining manner. Turning to the question of the extracts, the Court found that the extracts include striking features, provide the tone of the article, and are able to draw the reader to the article. Relying on these features, the Court ruled that the extracts contain the necessary expression of intellectual creation. Further, the Court found that the defence of fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review or for the purpose of reporting current events did not apply, and therefore concluded that PRCA’s action was an infringement of copyright. The decision contrasts with that of Fairfax, a recent Australian Federal Court (Australian Court) decision previously reported by E-TIPS® (“Australia Says No to Copyright for Headlines”, Vol 9, No 7, October 6, 2010). In that case, the Australian Court held that there was no copyright in ten selected headlines of newspaper articles and that the defence of fair dealing for reporting news applied. However, in Fairfax, the news reporting service had provided its own summaries for the articles. For the full reasons for judgment in The Newspaper Licensing Agencies Limited et al v Meltwater Holding BV et al [2010] EWHC 3099 (Ch), visit: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2010/3099.html Summary by: Tom Feather and Adam Lis