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AP Settles All Headline News Lawsuit; Forgets To Report On It?

from the this-is-odd dept

Mon, Jul 13th 2009 1:42pm — Mike Masnick

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

10 Comments

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Dark Helmet (profile), 13 Jul 2009 @ 2:36pm

Well...
"AP Settles All Headline News Lawsuit; Forgets To Report On It?"

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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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2009 @ 3:04pm

The actual result is, according to the AP, "hot news", however the result bans "hot news", consequently causing a tear in the fabric of space-time.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2009 @ 3:06pm

This concept of "hot news" escapes me. For example, if I witnessed something worthy of "hot news" and, thanks to technology, I immediately uploaded photos and a story to a blog/newspaper/TV station (if I was a journalist) and I then could reclaim the copyright if I was the first to publish such "hot news"?

If this is the case, then, stupid.... and harmful.
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William Dodder, 13 Jul 2009 @ 3:19pm

When AP did report they screwed it up.
Actually the best reporting on this has come from AFP and then AP.

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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Peter Dow (profile), 13 Jul 2009 @ 3:29pm

Hot news copyright
If your example of "hot news" is correct, then to continue the example, you'd wait until AP (or some other news organization) published a story about the worthy event, then sue them for infringement, and your lawyer can retire on the proceeds.

You might get a few bucks for a t-shirt.
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William Dodder, 13 Jul 2009 @ 3:30pm

Correction to my commment
Moderator Help perhaps.

What I meant to convey was "Actually the best reporting on this has come from AFP and then AHN."

Thanks.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 13 Jul 2009 @ 3:33pm

It's Hot News after all
Perhaps AHN owns the 'Hot News' rights to the story, and AP feels it can't comment?

(I kid. Sorta.)
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William Dodder, 13 Jul 2009 @ 3:40pm

Re: It's Hot News after all
AP would simply rip it off anyway, not attribute it or link and claim "Sources said" or some other BS.

The AP truly is very very bad.
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CleverName, 13 Jul 2009 @ 4:42pm

First it was breaking news
and now hot news ...
I'd rather see some news hotties
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2009 @ 9:21pm

What goes around...
Since Techdirt reported this before AP, does this mean that AP ripped off Techdirt's hot news?
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