AP Sues VeriSign: News Aggregation ‘Business Model’ at Risk
While the blogosphere rallies that Associated Press “doesn’t get” how the Internet “works,” VeriSign is getting a renewed lesson in how business law works.
The AP reported that it filed a lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court in New York against VeriSign’s Moreover Technologies, a company that “aggregates and redistributes news online, claiming it is making improper use of AP’s copyright-protected headlines, stories and photos.”
Tom Curley, AP CEO: Our organization “spends hundreds of milions of dollars annually to provide original coverage of vital breaking news that cannot be obtained elsewhere.” Nevertheless, Moreover is wantonly “freeriding on our newsgathering and our reporting of news from around the world.”
YOU GO, TOM! I have long noted: If ‘We the Media’ Poaches Content, Who Pays for News Production?
Last month, I underscored:Does Huffington Post Exploit Bloggers AND Mainstream Media?
At the end of the new media, “citizen journalism” day, who will pay to produce the news that everyone seeks to aggregate without paying for?
Moreover, will there continue to be original news to aggregate? After all, news may be a commodity, but valuable commodities cost dearly.
Whatever the legal merits of AP v. Moreover, or its outcome, it is a good thing that the who needs to pay for the content of others news aggregation “business model” is at risk.
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