Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) yesterday said that
Internet firm Yahoo! had profited from a "free ride" by plagiarising
and reproducing its news content without its permission.
The publicly listed media
company said this in its rebuttal to Yahoo!'s defence against a lawsuit that
SPH had brought against it.
Last month, SPH filed a writ of
summons and a statement of claim against Yahoo!, citing as examples some 23
articles from its stable of newspapers that were allegedly substantially
reproduced over a 12-month period on Yahoo! Southeast Asia's websites.
Yahoo! denied any such
infringement, claiming it had done so, among other things, in the public
interest.
SPH issued a statement
yesterday, stating: "SPH is determined to pursue this suit vigorously and
to protect its copyrighted works. It cannot allow a third party to plagiarise
its works without regard to the effort and resources that go into producing its
content."
In its papers filed at the High
Court yesterday, it said that in reproducing news content without permission,
Yahoo! intended to and did save itself time, labour and investment at the
expense of SPH journalists, thereby enjoying a "free ride".
SPH asserted that Yahoo! had,
over an extended period of time, "consistently and deliberately"
committed plagiarism by substantially reproducing the words and expressions
used in its articles without permission.
This substantial copying
"extended beyond the reproduction of mere facts and information".
Among other things, it said,
Yahoo! reproduced "the language (including by way of the reproduction of
identical paragraphs, sentences, phrases and/or words and/or through the
synonymous replacement of phrases and/or words), selection, arrangement and
presentation" of SPH's articles.
Yahoo!'s actions were
tantamount to an improper misappropriation of SPH's significant investments in
assembling an independent news gathering and journalistic team, said the media
company.
The United States-based
company, in its defence to SPH's suit, had claimed that the alleged
infringements related only to facts and information, which cannot be protected
by copyright.
It added, in papers filed on
Dec 13, that it was important that the public be kept informed of current
events in Singapore.
It was in the public interest,
therefore, that such news be disseminated and made available "as freely
and as widely as possible" in a timely manner, it claimed.
However, SPH countered yesterday
in its reply that, far from being in the public interest, the infringing acts
were committed for commercial gain.
It was done to further
"its vested financial interest, to direct and maximise traffic to its
website in order to drive up its page views and advertising revenue".
SPH had previously said that to
the best of its knowledge, Yahoo! generates revenue by marketing and selling
advertising space on its website. This includes revenue from advertisers each
time a visitor clicks on an advertisement displayed, it is believed.
Yesterday, SPH also referred to
the fact that last year, Yahoo! had sought to obtain a licence from SPH for the
reproduction of its articles.
When negotiations broke down,
Yahoo! nonetheless went ahead to substantially reproduce SPH's articles, which
SPH said showed that Yahoo! was "deliberately and flagrantly"
infringing its copyright for commercial gain.
In response to Yahoo!'s
argument that the 23 articles cited made up only a very small proportion of the
articles published by SPH newspapers, SPH reiterated that the 23 articles did
not represent the full extent of Yahoo!'s infringing acts. SPH added that it
would produce more evidence at the right juncture.
Yahoo! is represented by
lawyers from ATMD Bird & Bird.
SPH, represented by
WongPartnership, is asking the court to declare that Yahoo! Southeast Asia has
infringed on its content, an injunction against the company from continuing the
infringement, and damages.
Marc Lim
The Straits Times
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