Publishers Versus Sites: The Online Copyright War Begins

(MoneyWatch)  Publishers and content creators have long complained about web sites using their material without permission or payment. AP has threatened legal action and News Corp. (NWS) considered walking away from Google (GOOG). But that was only foreshadowing. A group of print and digital publishers plan a first collective attack on pirate sites. This will be just the first of many battles fueled by falling publisher revenues and online business models that leverage others' intellectual property. Today, small fry. Tomorrow, Google.

About a dozen groups, including traditional print companies, wire services, and blog networks, hired Attributor, which monitors the Internet for unauthorized use of client content. The crackdown, to start this month, will use a three-step process to target sites that use large numbers of intact articles:

1. Send a warning letter that suggests licensing the content.
2. If the site won't pay, ask search engines and banner ad services to remove the infringing pages.
3. If all else fails, use a Digital Millennium Copyright Act take-down notice to have the site's hosting company remove the site.

According to Attributor, the publishers are not seeking past damages, but rather license fees going forward.

This project is clearly only a first that seems intended to test the waters and method. Some organizations like AP have expressed extreme views of what would be a copyright violation, including quoting a headline and including a link. That's far from the 80 percent of an article threshold that Attributor will be using this time.

I think that Attributor and its clients will work with a typical legal strategy. First you target those who will fold fastest, improving the enforcement process and building precedent. Eventually you go after the companies with deep pockets and many lawyers.

Sometime in the future, that will mean Google. Given falling ad revenues, declining circulation, and no clearly better business model, this was bound to happen. Small sites that can't afford license fees will feel the hammer first, and, eventually, even companies like Google may see an end to previous levels of profitability because using other people's IP may become an untenable model.

Source Images: RGBStock.com users weewillyd and woodsy