This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

How The Australian newspaper illustrated copy lifting by Mail Online

Will News Corp's Australian newspapers win a legal battle with Mail Online over its lifting of articles?

Not according to three media law experts canvassed by the Crikey website. Their overall opinion suggests it is hard to claim that online copy is covered by copyright.

News Corp has served Mail Online's parent company with a legal letter listing 10 instances of alleged theft of content. Examples were highlighted in Monday's Australian, as above.

Evidently, there isn't much case history to draw on. But there are some ironies, such as the fact that News Corp's major publishing rival, Fairfax, accused Business Spectator of plagiarism in 2009 for publishing summaries of its articles.

Business Spectator, which is now owned by News Corp, still publishes such summaries. Another outlet, Business Insider, also does so.

Crikey quotes Queensland media academic Mark Pearson as saying that the copying of content would be judged according to what is a "fair" proportion. He added: "What's protected is the form of expression, not the facts of a story.

"So, a rewrite of a story would not be protected by copyright". This means that as long as Mail Online rewrites stories it cannot be held to have breached copyright.

But what about the lifting of direct quotes? Again, the media law experts consulted by Crikey suggest the rights to a quote lie with the speaker.

But one lawyer, Jeremy Storer, thinks copyright might be held jointly between the reporter and the interviewee. So he says: "I guess in some cases, a journalist could establish they've put in sufficient work in organising and arranging a long-form piece that involves a long interview.

"In such a case, the court could determine there would be some form of joint copyright ownership."

Melbourne university law professor, Andrew Kenyon, understands why a journalist who has worked hard to secure an interview would be unhappy with it being used elsewhere.

"But," he told Crikey, "that doesn't automatically mean they have a copyright claim."

PS: And no, Dear Reader, I am not overlooking the irony that I am drawing on the hard work of the Crikey writer, Myriam Robin, in summarising her article. But I believe it deserves a wider audience and hope she agrees.

Source: Crikey