About this weblog
Here we'll explore the nexus of legal rulings, Capitol Hill
policy-making, technical standards development, and technological
innovation that creates -- and will recreate -- the networked world as we
know it. Among the topics we'll touch on: intellectual property
conflicts, technical architecture and innovation, the evolution of
copyright, private vs. public interests in Net policy-making, lobbying
and the law, and more.
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this weblog are those of the authors and not of their respective institutions.
What Does "Copyfight" Mean?
Copyfight, the Solo Years: April 2002-March 2004
1. Terry Steichen on April 24, 2004 7:24 AM writes...
The Reuter's position begs the question of whether their headlines actually enjoy any copyright protection to infringe upon. (Put another way, it's very gracious to permit things you can't really prevent.)
Permalink to CommentRegarding the larger question of whether news headlines in general even qualify for copyright protection (thus setting the stage for fair use arguments), I think it may be useful to differentiate between headlines pertaining to true news stories (covering some event), from those that relate to analysis, opinion and features.
True news stories are almost always factual. Any creative headline expression is usually centered on compressing the factual situation - but the essence is still factual. The creative content of such headlines is probably not enough to distinguish them from headlines of competing publishers regarding stories on the same event. Thus, they would appear outside of the realm of copyright protections.
When you move away from what I call "true news" reports, the creative component is often somewhat greater. Perhaps, for argument's sake, it even reaches the point of being copyrightable. In such a case, it's quite unclear (to me, at least) whether copyright protection would apply to a set of headlines (which is the typical form in which headlines are used), some of which are completely factual and others of a more expressive nature.