In press agencies and offices, they are common PR practise: clippings. They are used to document your work, analyse coverage, monitor conveyed messages etc. Many agencies have specialized in media monitoring services and systematically browse the landscape of print, TV, radio and online publications at minute intervals. The keywords are defined by their clients who pay for this service, of course. Nothing out of the ordinary so far.

The issue gains some explosive force, though, when taking a look across the channel. Great Britain has witnessed this system tremble in a way which mustn’t be underestimated. Initiator of agitation were the cash-strapped publishing houses which want to profit from the booming online business now, too. A fact which is easily comprehensible since – just like in Germany – many renowned publishing houses are financially on the rocks. Proceeds from advertisements continue to break away – a sorry but common phenomenon for FAZ and Guardian alike.

Publishers present news aggregators with the bill
Consequently, clever publishers have started looking for new sources of revenue without caring too much about exploring why the ad business is decreasing. Usual scapegoat: the Internet. Managements are enviously eyeing all those who know how to make profits going into the millions and billions in the world wide web. While up to date it was search engine giant Google which had to bear all the blame, publishers are now targeting news aggregators. Their claim: introduction of a licence fee for the right to index and link to their content.

What does this mean in detail? An example: a news aggregator is browsing the web for articles including certain keywords by order of a client. During this search it comes across a freely accessible article in the online issue of a national daily newspaper. The link is stored in an archive and – along with many others – e-mailed to the client later. Ka-ching! This is exactly when the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), the collecting society for UK newspapers, comes in to claims its financial interests: no coping from national newspapers without paying a licence fee.

The big names in the clipping industry are fighting back
Since 1st January 2010 this scenario has become a reality in Great Britain. News aggregators are not allowed to search Internet pages of NLA members such as Financial Times and Daily Telegraph anymore. But publishing houses which do not belong to the NLA climb on the bandwagon now, too. Recently, the tabloid paper Mirror has blocked NewsNow, Meltwater, and other aggregators from crawling its site. As a result, media monitoring service providers are suffering severe financial losses.

It did not take long for the big names in the industry to take countermeasures: while NewsNow has initiated the petition ‘right2link’, Meltwater is referring this matter to the UK Copyright Tribunal. Even the UK government has come to the aid of the victims of the licensing regulations: recently, a conservative member of the House of Lords has issued a request for change which is meant to protect the right to link to freely accessible online content.

What’s next?
Until the Copyright Tribunal and the House of Lords will have come to a resolution, publishers and news aggregators will continue to fight for link sovereignty on the Internet. It will just be a question of time for the debate on links and copyright infringements to reach Germany as well. The UK judgement is likely to serve as a role model then.

What is your opinion on the issue? Should linking to freely accessible online content be free of charge or are publishers right in claiming the protection of copyright?

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