Legal Question in Intellectual Property in United Kingdom

Copyright liability on the Internet

An acquaintance of mine runs a small videogames website that largely consists of a discussion forum with a small site section hosting news and reviews articles. This site is a non-profit site with very little user traffic. Several months ago, I found a press release on the internet and copied it verbatim to my friend's site as a forum discussion post. Anything posted as 'news' on this forum is transferred automatically to the other section of the site as a news article.

My friend was recently contacted over said news article by a European information service, who claimed that this article came from one of their news subscription services and was copyrighted material. By hosting the news on the website, the site, and by extension the owner, were guilty of plagiarism. They have threatened legal action unless an out-of-court compensation settlement to the tune of 1300 Euros is deposited in their account. I have no memory of where this news article was originally taken from.

Is there any advice that anyone could possibly offer on this issue?


Asked on 10/21/03, 7:07 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Richard Howard Richard Howard & CO

Re: Copyright liability on the Internet

The first step would be to ask for them to prove how it is they own the copyright.

If it is there's you would need to check if there is any right to fair use eg for review or reporting current events. see Section 30 Copyright etc Act 1988

If that doesn't work grovel, agree to credit them in relation to the copied work on the site and offer them �75

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Answered on 10/21/03, 7:25 am


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