AR TECHNICA: A copyright battle between The Associated Press and an online news-clipping service is reaching a climax, and the case could have significant implications for fair use. AP sued Meltwater Group last year, arguing the “reputation management” company had a “parasitic business model” that violated copyright. Meltwater is defending the case, arguing that it is merely a search engine.

Meltwater News is a media-monitoring service that helps corporations track what’s being said about them in press outlets online. The company boasts that it can “track keywords, phrases, and topics in over 192,000 sources from over 190 countries and 100 languages” throughout the day. It doesn’t send its subscribers full articles, but does copy snippets and headlines then provide links to full stories—like Google News.

Last week, the nation’s largest newspapers lined up to tell the New York federal judge considering the case that they support the AP. An amicus brief [PDF] was filed by The New York Times, The McClatchy Company, Advance Publications, and the Newspaper Association of America, which represents 200 newspapers around the country. In the brief, they argue that Meltwater isn’t a search engine—it’s a competitor… (more)

EDITOR: It is unlikely that an adverse decision against Meltwater News would affect NewsLanc because it does not charge fees or sell advertisements and its purpose is education.

Linking to articles of interest brings viewers to the publisher of the article. For example, NewsLanc often links to the British Financial Times. It is possible that some of our viewers who never were aware of the outstanding FT publication have subsequently subscribed to its services.

The Associated Press is a news service for a fee to the media, although it blurs the distinction by having its own web site. Nevertheless, articles by the AP can be accessed through Google when they are published by the AP clients.