News Publishers, Tech Groups Scuffle Over Online Content Protections

There's “no compelling or well-founded argument for adoption” of additional copyright protections for online news stories and headlines that would affect news aggregators such as Google and Facebook, said Computer & Communications Industry Association in second round comments that were due Wednesday in a Copyright Office proceeding (see 2112090069) on publisher protections (docket ID COLC-2021-0006). The proceeding stems from a May request by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C, that the CO investigate additional publisher protections. News aggregation “is an existential problem for the news industry,” said the Copyright Alliance in its own comments. Congress and the CO should look into policies in Europe and Australia that give publishers additional protections and allow publishers to collectively bargain with aggregators for rights, said the Association of Magazine Media. Such rules would be “not only undesirable but also impossible within the U.S. legal framework,” CCIA said. The CO should make it easier for online publishers to register works, the News Media Alliance said. The “current market crisis” for news publishers will persist until their copyrights are properly enforced and Congress “steps in to recalibrate” the current “market dominance problems,” said NMA. Extending copyright protections or adjusting competition law to restrict sharing hyperlinks and quoting headlines or article snippets “would fundamentally alter the way we create, share, engage with, and learn from news and information online,” said startup-policy group Engine. “Platforms and online communities do not ‘free ride’ off of the content created by publishers,” said Reddit. “They share it, build off of it, and help others discover it.”