No Copyright In This Headline

The Federal Court of Australia decided today that newspaper headlines are not protected by copyright. How will this impact Google News?

Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 984 (7 September 2010)

See Mallesons Alert

The Australian

BusinessWeek

Hot News

"Breathing some new life into the “hot news” doctrine, Judge Cote of the Southern District of New York recently issued a permanent injunction requiring the Internet-based financial news site TheFlyOnTheWall.com (Fly) to delay its reporting of stock recommendations from Wall Street research analysts. ..."

See Case Note for Barclays Capital, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., and Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. v. THEFLYONTHEWALL.COM , 06 Civ. 4908 (S.D.N.Y. 2010)

News

"With traditional print circulation declining and advertising revenue weak — both from online and from print — media companies are trying to extract new sources of revenue from online readers, despite the risk that they could alienate some by charging for access.

The Wall Street Journal, also owned by News Corp., The Financial Times and Newsday all charge for access. The New York Times has announced a plan to do so. Each has a payment system developed largely in-house.

News Corp. announced in August that all of its titles would move to charging for Web access. Its chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, threatened last year to remove his publications’ stories from Google's search index to encourage people to pay for content online."

See NYT

Google News

One topic for tonight's class will be Google News, and the impact of the IceTV copyright decision on Google. For IceTV, see below.

Have a look at the following:

• Brussels decision
• Murdoch attacks Google
• Associated Press attacks Google
• NYTimes and Gatehouse