Thursday, October 06, 2005

Japan newspaper wins damages for online use of headlines

Hmmm.

An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper was awarded compensation from a small Internet firm that used its news headlines without permission, in a first-of-a-kind ruling in the country.

The Intellectual Property High Court, a special branch court of the Tokyo High Court, ordered Digital Alliance Corp. to pay about 237,700 yen (2,000 dollars) to the Yomiuri.

The court said the use of news headlines by Digital Alliance was illegal. It is the first ruling in Japan giving protection to news headlines.

But presiding Judge Tomokatsu Tsukahara said that headlines were still in a legal gray area as they are not mentioned under Japan's Copyright Law. He did not order Digital Alliance to pull the Yomiuri headlines off its website.

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