AP accused news clipping service of copying content
By Larry Neumeister
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge ruled for The Associated Press on Wednesday in its lawsuit challenging the use of story excerpts by Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc. and its Meltwater News Service.
The AP sued the company that monitors the media for corporate customers last year, alleging that it copies AP content and sells it to clients without paying AP licensing fees.
“This ruling makes it crystal clear that Meltwater wrongly used news content from AP to create its own content, while paying none of the costs associated with creating original news content,” said Gary Pruitt, AP’s president and CEO.
“This is an important ruling for AP and others in the news business who work so hard to provide high-quality original news reports on which the public relies,” Pruitt said.
Lawyers for the San Francisco-based Meltwater News did not immediately comment. The company is a 12-year-old electronic news clipping service that helps its clients monitor how they are covered in the press.
In its lawsuit, the AP alleged that Meltwater News had been pilfering current and past material from the AP and other news providers.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote announced her decision in the case Wednesday, but its details were not immediately released publicly. She said in an order that the AP’s request for a decision in its favor before any trial had been granted, “with one exception” that she did not specify.
Cote said she would release the ruling publicly after lawyers notified her Thursday whether they believe anything needed to be redacted.
Earlier this year, The New York Times, USA Today publisher Gannett Co. Inc., the McClatchy Co. and Advance Publications Inc. said in court papers that their businesses would be jeopardized if Meltwater was permitted to continue as it had.
