Fair use

Online news aggregation websites that compile and resell news stories without the publisher's permission are committing copyright infringement and are not protected under the fair use doctrine, a New York judge ruled.

A federal appellate court ruled that a Spanish-language gossip magazine violated the copyrights of a celebrity couple by publishing private photographs of their secret wedding in a case that according to the court “reads like a telenovela."

A federal court last week rejected a copyright infringement lawsuit against Bloomberg L.P. for its unauthorized publication of a conference call between a corporation's senior executives and a group of securities analysts, finding that the business and financial news publisher was protected from liability by the fair use doctrine.

Individuals who physically remove credit lines attached to photographs violate a federal law that prevents people from stripping out copyright ownership information from works, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia (3rd Cir.) ruled earlier this week.

The U.S. District Court in New York City ordered Gawker Media Saturday to remove excerpts of former U.S. vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book from its website pending a hearing next week regarding a lawsuit filed by the book’s publisher, HarperCollins, according to court documents.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is suing dozens of websites that are using the newspaper’s content without permission.

Righthaven LLC, a Nevada company that represents the paper, has filed 37 lawsuits since March against various organizations for copyright infringement, including blogs that discuss reforming marijuana laws, sports betting and real estate.

“We believe we’ve only scratched the surface of dealing with this issue,” Righthaven Chief Executive Steven Gibson said. “There are literally oceans of infringement out there.”

The Associated Press on Monday announced new efforts to contain the rapid online spread of its content, saying legal action will be taken against any Web site or online news aggregator that uses an AP story without first obtaining permission.