Meltwater and NLA agree on online content licensing

Media monitoring service Meltwater and the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) have reached an agreement on the "finer details" of a licensing model for online content, which has been accepted by the Copyright Tribunal in its final decision this week.

The tribunal had already issued interim findings on the case in February, having been tasked with looking into the dispute between Meltwater and the NLA over the use of online newspaper content.

The issue arose after the NLA went to introduce a scheme to license media monitoring organisations such as Meltwater, and the use of newspaper websites through a web database license (WDL), and also end users of such services via a web end user licence (WEUL).

Meltwater had argued that while it was prepared to enter into the WDL it did not feel its customers should be required to enter into a WEUL.

Seeking clarification on the matter, the case was heard by the Copyright Tribunal, which in its interim findings this year stated that "there is no logical distinction between the headline-only service and the headline plus text extract service" and as such end users of both should "enter into the WEUL" and "be subject to the same tariff rates".

The tribunal had argued though that proposed increases in the licences in 2012, 2013 and 2014 were "unreasonable" and "determined that the fixed rate for those years should be much lower".

According to a joint statement from all parties involved, since this decision was published Meltwater and the NLA "have worked together in close consultation to reach agreement on the finer details of the licensing payment model", with a revised fixed price agreed upon.

"Their joint proposals were agreed by UKMMA [UK Media Monitoring Association] and submitted to the Copyright Tribunal."

The Tribunal accepted the agreed upon proposals in its final decision, concluding the agreements now put forward "are reasonable" and as a result it "will order that the scheme be varied accordingly".

"This decision by the Copyright Tribunal means that licensing can now begin, on terms accepted by all parties," the joint statement adds.

"The NLA will commence invoicing for these fees from next month, backdated to 1 January 2010."

Co-founder of the Meltwater Group Jens-Petter Glittenberg added: "The NLA and Meltwater are now committed to ensuring that UK end users of such monitoring services are licensed quickly, fairly and efficiently.

"We are happy with the Copyright Tribunal decision. Our aim from the outset was to seek clarification of UK copyright law for both rights-holders and end users, particularly for content freely available online."

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