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Breaking news: but we can't tell you what it is

As regular readers know, I quickly race around the interweb every morning and aggregate a set of headlines and short extracts from the sci-tech stories which I think are most important or interesting.

These headlines, excerpts and links are then published on the Aardvark News Links page so that readers can save themselves the hassles of having to browse a dozen or more key sites to see what's happening in the hi-tech world.

Readers will also recall that my 7am News organisation was built on the concept of news headline/link aggregation and that it's a model which Google now uses extensively for its Google News site.

Well bad news was on the wires this morning...

It seems that, according to the UK Court of Appeal, headlines are now protected by copyright and may be considered separate literary works.

Having been effectively granted this status by the UK courts, news publishers are now entitled to either forbid the use of those headlines by aggregators (like myself) or to charge a fee for their use.

An overview of the case which resulted in the ruling and the subsequent appeal can be found in these two stories from The Telegraph:

• High Court ruling means newspapers can charge businesses for their web content
• Newspapers win copyright battle over web content

Does this mean that, in quoting those headlines, I've committed an offense under copyright law?

Well if I was in the UK, I probably did.

However, it should be remembered that copyright is a "right" which is bestowed upon the copyright owner. If they choose not to exercise that right then no prosecutions for infringement will be forthcoming.

I strongly doubt that most newspapers will exercise their right to demand fees from bloggers or aggregators who quote their headlines and provide links to their stories, since they see the value in such "traffic direction" to be worth far more than the paltry sums anyone might be prepared to pay.

However, this court ruling must call into question the concept of "fair use".

In most countries, copyright law provides exemptions where copyrighted material is reproduced in part for the purposes of review, criticism, parody or news reporting. That doesn't mean a work can be quoted entirely -- it simply means that in some circumstances, others are entitled to reproduce a snippet of someone else's work so as to provide context for their own work.

By classifying a news headline as a separate literary work, the concept of fair use is sorely challenged.

I would also challenge the court's assertion that *all* headlines represent a literary work.

For example, here are a few headlines from today's stuff website:

• Kiwi confirmed dead
• Dollar slips from high
• Privacy concern addressed
• Breivik explosives detonated

Come on... can a three word phrase really be considered a literary work worthy of copyright protection?

I would argue that it can't -- after all, the very raison d'etre for trademark legislation is because short phrases are usually considered not eligible for copyright protection. If you want to "own" a phrase, you generally have to apply for trademark protection -- so why should newspapers be granted copyright protection for the same?

So fear not -- I shan't be paying any huge stipend to the news organisations for the use of their headlines and, if they come knocking on my door demanding their dues, I shall send them away with a flea in their ear. I'll ether not bother to carry their stories or I shall simply rewrite their headlines (it really doesn't take long to come up with new literary work of this scale you know).

What do you think?

Has the UK court's granting copyright protection for headlines effectively undermined the need for trademark legislation in that country?

Is the UK court system out of touch with reality and the cyberworld?

Remember the word "aardvarkrox" when you go to sign up for the new forums (yeah, I know I haven't customised it yet but bear with me ;-)

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