AP Settles All Headline News Lawsuit; Forgets To Report On It?
from the this-is-odd dept
There's been a lot of discussion lately about the AP's reliance on a rather ancient precedent that "hot news" can be protected, despite the fact that you can't copyright factual information, in its case against the site All Headline News. This has thrust the concept of "hot news" protection back into the spotlight after most people considered it a dead concept. Now, suddenly, newspapers all over are talking about trying to extend the "hot news" concept and even expanding copyright law to explicitly allow such hot news protectionism, despite the massive harm it would do. For that reason, the lawsuit between the AP and AHN was quite important... and yet, Will alerts us to the fact that the the AP and AHN quietly settled the lawsuit last month (warning: pdf). No details are provided in the settlement announcement, but the key thing for the AP is it lets it act as if "hot news" is definitely still allowed. A full lawsuit with AHN pushing back on the concept could have wiped out the concept of hot news, and clearly the AP didn't want that to happen just as it was about to start threatening and suing a bunch of aggregators. Perhaps that's why the Associated Press didn't even seem to report on its own "hot news."
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Filed Under: copyright, hot news, news. ownership, settlement
Companies: all headline news, associated press
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Well...
Well, yeah, but to be fair, even if they DID report it they'd get the story wrong, so does it really matter?
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If this is the case, then, stupid.... and harmful.
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Hot news copyright
You might get a few bucks for a t-shirt.
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When AP did report they screwed it up.
The AP story that was release hours after this TechDirt article reads like a sales brochure and marketing statement.
Here is the thing Hot News is a New York only legal concept.. Other jurisdictions don't recognize it.
We should ban AP and support the hell out of modern day outlets like Huffington and AHN and others.
Frankly it looks like AHN, who in the suit is described as a much smaller competitor, made a business decision.
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Correction to my commment
What I meant to convey was "Actually the best reporting on this has come from AFP and then AHN."
Thanks.
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It's Hot News after all
(I kid. Sorta.)
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Re: It's Hot News after all
The AP truly is very very bad.
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First it was breaking news
I'd rather see some news hotties
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What goes around...
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