Judge Reaffirms ‘Hot News Doctrine’ in AP Suit
A federal judge is allowing a copyright infringement suit by the Associated Press to proceed on the theory that the “hot news doctrine” applies to the Internet.
AP is suing AHN Media Corp. and All Headline News Corp. for distributing its breaking news on the Internet in a service that it sells to other news outlets, the Associated Press reports. AHN removes references to AP before distributing the stories, the suit alleges.
The Supreme Court established the hot news doctrine in a 1918 case that held facts generally can’t be copyrighted, but companies commit infringement when they copy time-sensitive “hot news,” according to the AP story. The Supreme Court opinion is International News Service v. Associated Press.
DLA Piper represents the Associated Press in the suit against AHN. “This is the first decision to apply the hot-news doctrine to material copied from and retransmitted via the Internet,” the press release says.
Updated at 1 p.m. to include information from DLA Piper.
