Don't Copy This Headline
from the or-we-could-sue-you-in-Japan dept
A year and a half ago, we wrote about an annoyed Japanese newspaper that was trying to sue an online news site for copying its headlines. At the time, the case was thrown out by a judge who claimed that headlines were not creative expressions. As someone who writes plenty of headlines, I have to take offense to that statement... but still find it odd that headlines should be subject to copyright claims. They're too short and often too straightforward. It's different for some sites that use more creative headlines, but in many cases, it's not hard to see multiple people come up with the identical headline independently. What happens then? Does the first news source to write a headline get to stop everyone else from using it? Think of the mess that would cause after mergers: "Company X Buys Company Y." Whoever gets the story out can then stop everyone else from using that headline. Well, now we'll see what happens in Japan. That original case was appealed and the higher court has ruled that headlines are subject to copyright protection.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
They forgot to tell 2ch
2ch is a free-for-all news and discussion forum, which has turned into an elaborate subculture with its own vocabulary and elaborate ASCII art. TV shows, movies have been made based on the 2ch culture -- recently, a movie studio hired thousands of creepy nerds to look like creepy nerds and walk around the streets of Aki-habara.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: They forgot to tell 2ch
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stpo Copying
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
so....
or is it that headline for any story forever more?
That sounds you hear is millions of copyright lawyers rubbing hands together with glee.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Movie/Book Titles...
I'm no lawyer however.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Movie/Book Titles...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Automation
[ link to this | view in chronology ]