Commentary

Dow Jones Says British Company 'Pirates' Headlines

by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 13, 2014

Dow Jones has sued the British company Ransquawk for allegedly misappropriating “hot news” -- or time-sensitive scoops -- by sending out Dow Jones headlines on the Web and through a mobile app.

“Dow Jones has a long and distinguished history of reporting news and business information. To do so with accuracy, speed, and authority, it dedicates considerable resources to investigating, reporting, and publishing news,” Dow Jones says in its complaint, filed last week in federal court in Manhattan. The news service goes on to accuse Ransquawk of offering “a pirated product” by “nearly instantaneously cutting, pasting, and broadcasting via their own channels the reports of news events that others have uncovered and verified at significant investment and expense.”

Dow Jones adds that on one occasion Ransquawk broadcast a recent “breaking news headline” about Twitter's initial public offering -- only two seconds after the item ran on one of Dow Jones' channels.

The problem for Dow Jones is that the concept of “hot news” is a hard sell these days, given that people can share headlines instantaneously on services like Twitter and Facebook.

The hot news principle dates to the early 1900s, when The Associated Press successfully sued a competing wire service for rewriting AP stories. But that case obviously predated the modern media world, where anyone with a Web connection can redistribute news organizations' “exclusives.”

While the hot news concept hasn't been overruled, it does appear to be dying. In one high profile 2011 decision, a federal appellate court overturned a finding that a Web site misappropriated hot news. That matter involved a lawsuit by a coalition of banks against the Web site Flyonthewall.com, which allegedly sent out early morning summaries of reports by Barclays, Bank of America's Merrill Lynch and Morgan Summary. While a trial judge issued an injunction banning the site from distributing the summaries, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the order. The appellate court later ruled that the banks hadn't proven their charges regarding hot news.

There have been a handful of other recent hot news cases, but they all appear to have settled. In one, the company All Headline News agreed to pay damages to The Associated Press for allegedly misappropriating hot news. In another, the site Briefing.com admitted liability for sending out Dow Jones' headlines.

2 comments about "Dow Jones Says British Company 'Pirates' Headlines".

Check to receive email when comments are posted.

Pete Austin from Fresh Relevance, January 14, 2014 at 6:08 a.m.
Typically forceful explanation of "hot news" from TechDirt: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110620/13271614771/appeals-court-realizes-hot-news-makes-no-sense-dumps-injunction-theflyonthewall.shtml
Reply

Paul Robinson from Viridian Development Corporation, January 14, 2014 at 11:54 a.m.

I think trying to claim mere headlines contain enough originality is a big stretch, and I suspect if someone decided not to settle the issue would be decided in favor of claims of fair use or that it's not sufficient originality to be copyrightable under the Supreme Court decision in "Feist v. Rural Telephone."

Usually a company decides the risk of going to trial is too high and settles, especially if the settlement fee is low. Get someone who's either not willing to pay or won't submit to threats and there might be a decision on this issue.