Since the dawn of copy machines and glue sticks, PR and marketing organizations have scanned daily newspapers and important magazines for articles about their companies and industries, and passed those articles along to company management and clients to educate them on industry developments, provide competitive analysis, and show where they were mentioned in the media universe. Not only is it a great way to stay educated and current on all the important events and developments in the industry, it is a great way for PR people to demonstrate the results of their efforts.
When I worked in the Public Affairs Office of the US Naval Academy, the first order of business each morning was to scan the local papers, cut out articles relevant to the Academy and its leadership, paste them onto sheets of paper, and make copies that would be bundled into daily news briefings. These briefings were distributed by internal mail and fax to the head of the PAO and other officers running the Academy, to give them a daily update on the news they needed to know. It also was a great way to get multiple paper cuts on fingers covered with paste and newsprint.
That practice is still in full swing today, every day, in almost every public and private company and organization, large and small. In fact, it probably became a more widespread practice as the Internet and email made it easier to find, cut an paste articles into reports, and send them to their management over the network. (substitute carpal tunnel syndrome for paper cuts) No one asks permission of the news outlets to send this information to internal employees, since we have the Fair Use Doctrine, this information is usually free, and usually freely available online.
Could that all go away? Are there serious implications on the horizon for the PR industry because of this practice? A powerful business association in the US says this could be illegal, and is starting to sue companies under a new, poorly defined program.
On Thursday, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) - a coalition of businesses formed to protect its members (originally just software companies) from the illegal copying and selling of copyrighted software code, aka software piracy - announced it settled a first-of-a-kind lawsuit against a company for piracy and copyright infringement.
But this wasn't about anyone pirating software code.
This is about content. The marketing department at Knowledge Networks, the company that was the target of the lawsuit, was copying news articles and putting them into "press packets," which were then distributed internally to certain company employees (not external customers) on a "regular basis". Sound familiar? What's even more interesting is the list of names of aggrieved SIIA member organizations. They were not software developers. They were news organizations like The Associated Press and UPI, among others.
This was the first settlement in SIIA's new "Corporate Content Anti-piracy Program," (CCAP) a program designed to target and seek damages from companies who are distributing internally any copyrighted content from SIIA member companies. According to the SIIA announcement, "This content includes text-based publications like articles in newspapers, magazines and newsletters, books – and also online works." They also pay big cash rewards to anonymous whistle blowers who tip off the SIIA on companies in violation of this ill-defined program.
Where is the line drawn? Can I no longer send URL links of interesting news articles to co-workers over email? Will I be sued if I share my newspaper with a colleague every morning? Am I going to pay a fine for scanning an article and putting it into an internal presentation? If you credit the author and publication, are you in the clear? It doesn't say.
What about Fair Use, which allows the reprinting of copyrighted content without permission, if that content is used for educational purposes? I think many in PR would argue that applies here.
Could this have major implications for the PR industry? I think so. Should the PR industry be concerned? Absolutely, unless this program better defines how this content may or may not be used internally with companies. I have not read anything that tells me the PR industry is aware of this or taking any necessary action. Maybe CCAP has been talked up plenty in PR circles, and I am missing something, but I don't think so.
In my experience, all articles used in reports are sourced - that is, the article title, publication name, author, date, page number, etc are all included with the content - does that indemnify my peers from CCAP?
I fail to see how this specific practice is hurting these content providers. As an example, articles/content from (SIIA member) The Associated Press is available free, online, through literally hundreds of news sources. How do they lose any potential profit by PR/marketing organizations passing around links to or copies of their articles among an internal audience? The PR/marketing organizations are not turning around and selling that content or in any way taking money out of the pockets of the content providers.
Or are they? If a PR agency bills its clients to scan, clip and report on articles on a daily/regular basis, are they profiting from that content and financially injuring the news organizations who published the articles? In my opinion, no, but it will be intersting to see if the SIIA pursues this.
And what about companies like Vocus and Biz360? Their multi-million dollar businesses are built on software products that track media coverage, "clip" it (provide summaries, complete text, and/or links to the article) and package it, for profit, as "market intelligence" for PR and marketing organizations. If they are scanning, clipping, analyzing and repackaging articles and selling those clips and reports, are they in violation of this program?
Hard to tell.
Again, I may be missing something, but I saw nothing in that announcement or on SIIA's site that says Knowledge Networks provided this as market intelligence, for a fee. It looks like they were just sending out the daily news report.
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