unicornnews: NLA backtracks on links licence

The Newspaper Licensing Agency has put its new ‘links licence’ on hold pending a Copyright Tribunal ruling.

As previously reported, the NLA, which traditionally provides licenses to companies who want to frequently photocopy newspaper articles for commercial reasons, including PR firms and clippings agencies, last year announced its plan to licence those companies who now provide links to online versions of articles rather than physical copies, as has become the trend in the media relations sector in recent years.

The announcement was controversial because most of the companies providing such links deny they need to be licensed. They argue that because no actual copies of any articles are made when links are provided, copyright issues are irrelevant, and therefore so are licensing concerns. As also previously reported, last month media monitors Meltwater announced they would take the NLA to the UK’s Copyright Tribunal – the court that considers copyright disputes – in a bid to get judicial backing for this viewpoint.

Given that action, the NLA has said it will put the introduction of the new links licence on hold, and will not bill those agencies providing commercial link services.

The boss of the Public Relations Consultants Assocition, who had previously spoken out against the link licence proposals, welcomed the NLA‘s announcement. Writing on his blog, Francis Ingham wrote: “The fundamental point is this. If they [the NLA] were confident of their position, they wouldn’t have blinked. But they have. And in our view, it’s because their bluff’s been called. Now their plans are in limbo. And they’ll remain there for between nine and twelve months while the Tribunal completes its work. We’re considering what our next step is, and we’ll keep the industry up-to-date about how we’re fighting for their interests. But be in no doubt -this is a terrible day for the NLA; a good day for the PR industry”.

Some had previously argued that the NLA‘s proposals were especially unwarranted given plans by many newspaper owners to put the bulk of their content behind ‘pay walls’. This would mean that companies receiving link lists from commercial link providers would have to have active subscriptions to see the content linked to, meaning newspaper owners would be receiving due payment from those accessing their content anyway.

Posted Tuesday January 12 2010 by Chris Cooke

Related categories: Legal news PRCA Print Media