The Newspaper Licensing Authority (NLA) has won a victory in the High Court over Meltwater, a company that aggregates online news headlines.
The ruling effectively affords inbound internet links a copyrighted status that would require any businesses circulating them to obtain a licence from the NLA.
The ruling is a worrying one, though unsurprising given the UK legal system has perennially strived to achieve new levels of ignorance regarding the web and the digital economy. But in siding with the NLA, which is effectively closing its eyes, sticking its fingers in its ears and drowning out the sounds of progress with some Luddite wailing in order to protect a business model trapped in the late 1990s, the courts have shown they are unfit to rule over such decisions or guard against this becoming a far more damaging precedent.
Irrespective of this specific case which pitted the NLA's revenue model against Meltwater's revenue model (a tussle it's hard to care too much about either way), the precedent should be a concern for all online publishers who aggregate, or signpost third party content to some extent, from lowly bloggers to Google News, and the consumers who enjoy the way they currently navigate the web and the media they read.
Comments