Associated Press | Politico
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled in favor of the Associated Press in its lawsuit against the clipping service Meltwater News, the AP’s Larry Neumeister reported Wednesday.
“AP has shown through undisputed evidence that Meltwater’s copying is not protected by the fair use doctrine,” Cote writes in her opinion.
Investigating and writing about newsworthy events is an expensive undertaking and enforcement of the copyright laws permits AP to earn the revenue that underwrites that work. Permitting Meltwater to take the fruit of AP’s labor for its own profit, without compensating AP, injures AP’s ability to perform this essential function of democracy.
The news co-op sued Meltwater last year, saying the service “has built its business on the willful exploitation and copying of the AP’s and other publishers’ news articles for profit.”
Meltwater said it was a search engine, “which allows its corporate and institutional customers to discovery, analyze, and educate others about information in the news media relevant to their businesses.”
Mackenzie Weinger reports that Meltwater says it will appeal the ruling. You can read it in its entirety here.
Previously: AP sues aggregator Meltwater News over copyright infringement | Meltwater says AP’s copyright lawsuit threatens all search engines
