The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today announced its opinion on the “temporary copying” exception in UK copyright law.
As we explained previously on this blog all other issues decided in the NLA’s favour remain unaffected. The result of the case has no implications for the licences NLA media access issues for the present web-monitoring services operated by Meltwater and other media monitoring agencies; although it may in time lead service providers to create new services which would operate under a different licensing regime.
The net economic effect of this judgement for newspaper and magazine publishers should be neutral: end user clients who pay for their current monitoring service still require a licence for the content they receive.
We are pleased that throughout these court cases, which began in the High Court in 2010, the principle that publishers should be fairly remunerated for use of their copyrighted content has been upheld.
The court cases have been critical in confirming copyright principles. Now that these principles have been established NLA will continue to work closely with Meltwater to supply them and their clients with appropriate licences for their use of publisher content. Negotiated commercial solutions which recognise and meet the needs of all parties are the way forward.
David Pugh
Managing Director, NLA media access
Summary of NLA vs Meltwater Case and Legal Rulings and Timeline
This note provides a summary of the legal decisions with regard to the commercial use of newspaper website content by professional media monitoring service providers and their clients.
NLA Supreme Court Statement April 2013
In April 2013 the UK Supreme Court referred the NLA and Meltwater case relating to temporary copying to the European Courts of Justice. Read the NLA Statement.
Copyright Tribunal Joint Statement
In May 2012 the Copyright Tribunal delivered its final decision in respect of the NLA’s Wen End User Licensing Scheme. Read the joint NLA, PRCA and Meltwater Statement.