Intellectual Creation

Is "what is in it for me?" your primary consideration in deciding whether you would read something? A striking and substantial headline in context that arouses curiosity and emotional connection should make a first good impression. Hooking headlines are the expression of intellectual creation of authors and are capable of being literary works in the copyright sense, as suggested in the Australian case of Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 984 and so ruled in English case of The Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd & Ors v Meltwater Holding BV & Ors {2011] EWCA Civ 890.

There are media monitoring and analysis services using spider programs to read the contents of a wide range of websites and make available via hyperlinks the headlines and the text extracts to their end-users for their own commercial gain. Litigation between content providers and media monitoring and analysis services are not uncommon. It was ruled in the European case of Infopaq International A/S v Dankske Dagblades Forening [2009] ECDR 16 that an author's expression of intellectual creation in an 11-consecutive-word extract would be sufficient to quantify as a substantial part of a copyright work.

In the business of media monitoring and analysis services, a large number of text extracts are taken from articles made available on content providers' websites. Instead of determining which particular text extract constitutes a substantial part of an article, the court would find fault by considering whether the conduct of the business is, on a balance of probability, likely to authorise its customers to breach others' copyright: The Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd & Ors v Meltwater Holding BV & Ors {2011] EWCA Civ 890.

While it is technologically trendy to deploy artificial intelligence with unique algorithms to continuously process media content generated by numerous websites providing timely marketing insights to target customers, I am of the view that the copyright issues remain the same. Without prior consent or licensing from copyright content providers, there is a high risk that they would infringe others' copyright through unauthorized reproduction, distribution or making available of copies of copyright works to the public. For good compliance and governance, I believe technological entrepreneurs having an interest in the field should partner with strategic content providers to sustain their business models!

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