infoJustice

[Reposted from Aro-IP, Link (CC-BY)]  Moneyweb is suing Fin24 for copyright infringement arising out of Fin24’s (re-)publication of eight articles which had been initially published by Moneyweb (see a Mail and Guardian report here). Moneyweb has created a dedicated website (here) where it has posted all of the pleadings filed to date and media articles. This Leo rarely has an opportunity to read litigants’ court documents and is delighted that these documents are so readily available.

Alas, the opening salvo of this battle, Moneyweb’s Founding Affidavit, is not available  on the site (the link opens Annexure C1 instead). However, the answer, Fin24’s Answering Affidavit , is available, as is Moneyweb’s Replying Affidavit. This Leo finds it all very interesting and useful. Thanks to Moneyweb’s website, she can share recent pleadings with her IP students and she is certain that many Afro-IP readers will find the documents interesting too. This will be a very interesting case to follow, as it is the first time a South African court has had an opportunity to consider whether news aggregation constitutes copyright infringement. Anton Harber succintly captured what’s at stake, when he blogged “This is a battle of our media giants, as Moneyweb is owned by Caxton and Fin24 by Nasper’s Media24. The elephants are fighting and the ants are watching, as always, nervously.” (Read his full post here).

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For how other jurisdictions have resolved similar cases see-
AP wins ruling in copyright case against news aggregator [2013 – The Associated Press v Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc, 12-cv-1087, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York]
UPDATE 1-Dow Jones wins injunction against Ransquawk over ‘hot news’ [ 2014- Dow Jones & Co v. Real-Time Analysis & News Ltd, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-00131]