Are you accidentally breaking copyright rules?

The inspiring news clipping you’re just about to share on social media could also put your organisation at legal risk.

From small businesses to big corporates, organisations around the country use media monitoring services to follow and capture media (and social media) coverage of both their brands and industries.

But using someone else’s content, even just part of it, can put you at risk of copyright infringement.

In recent years the NSW Government was involved in a long-running dispute with the Copyright Agency over licence fees and public servants’ copying and communication of copyrighted material.

“This refusal to pay a fair rate hurts Australian writers, journalists, cartoonists, photographers, publishers and visual artists, and harms their ability to invest, innovate and develop more, new Australian content,” Copyright Agency CEO Adam Suckling said of the dispute.

Part of a media monitoring organisation’s standard licensing arrangements with the Copyright Agency, – a not-for-profit business which represents the rights of copyright owners –  is a “Downstream Licence”. This basic licence allows you to distribute third-party content internally within your organisation.

A more expansive Copyright Agency licence provides for additional scope to re-use third party content. It allows the holder to:

1. Share newspaper or magazine clippings externally via emails, website and extranet
2. Copy and share newspaper or magazine clippings even if they did not come from a licensed media monitoring organisation
3. Share other business-critical content, such as industry journal articles, internet content and survey plans and maps
4. Store news content beyond the media monitoring organisation limit of 12 months
5. Use news content in presentations, management reports and meeting minutes

The bottom line: the licence that comes with your media-monitoring may not be enough.

At Cannings Purple, we can build a Copyright Agency licence into our tailored monitoring packages. Your account manager is available to discuss options and assess what level of licensing best suits your requirements.

Cannings Purple’s specialised Media Intelligence services give you the data, detail and insights you need to drive business decisions. – if you need more details, contact Product Sales Manager Dane Chandler.

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Photo by Vincent Delegge on Unsplash