Unauthorized press review services

April 7th 2016
Subject: Important information on using newspaper and magazine
articles as well as website content within your company
Dear Sir (Dear Madam):
Your organization, like so many others, no doubt uses newspaper content for press reviews,
monitoring or competitive intelligence.
We are writing as the exclusive rights manager for several publishers in Quebec and the rest of
Canada. In this capacity, we manage the reproduction rights of content from these publishers'
print editions as well as their websites. You can find the list of all the sources we represent by
clicking here.
Our services are available through the Eureka.cc (in Canada) and
Europresse.com (in Europe) websites.
For some time now, several Quebec companies have been asking us questions regarding the
legal aspects of the use and redistribution of newspaper and magazine articles within their
companies. These questions have prompted us to send you this update.
Content available on websites
Many people seem to think that linking to an article available on the Internet without
reproducing the article is legal and authorized use of said article. On the contrary, you can
access the article only by accepting the website's terms and conditions for use, as set out by
the website's owner.
The vast majority of websites grant authorization to access the site under terms such as “We
grant you a limited license to access our site for your personal and non-commercial use.”
Using a website’s content in the course of a company's operations represents commercial use,
as does redistributing content (in the form of links or entire text) within a company. Further,
this kind of use is clearly not “personal.” Accordingly, it is therefore illegal to reuse content –
whether reproduced in its entirety or by distributing a link to the publisher's website – from
websites without approval from the website owner or his or her representative.
Unauthorized press review services
Recent months have seen the appearance of several companies that claim to offer automated
press review services at a low cost, without paying for copyrights. These companies meet with
potential clients and claim that it is possible to give them access to daily press content without
any formality, without authorization from copyright holders and, especially, without payment
of royalties.
These services operate at the margins of applicable laws and risk prosecution in Canada and
abroad; several legal proceedings are already underway in this regard. Even worse, these
companies leave their clients open to lawsuits brought by holders of copyrights on the content
they index and distribute. These kinds of companies and their business practices jeopardize
hundreds of jobs in the publishing industry and negatively impact journalistic content by
depriving publishers of the revenue needed to create quality content.
In conclusion, there are solutions that allow you to use newspaper and magazine content
available in print and on the Internet in a fair and legal manner that respects the rights of
everyone involved. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your needs or for answers to your
questions.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Yours truly,
Éric F. Lemieux
Vice-président, affaires juridiques
APPENDIX
Following is a summary of the legal rules governing press reviews, which you can use to make
an informed decision on whether to produce press reviews (or media monitoring) internally or
use the services of an external company, and to redistribute this content within your
organization.
Rules under the Copyright Act:
The Copyright Act stipulates that any organization or individual wishing to reproduce or
disseminate a protected work (such as a press article) must obtain prior approval from the
copyright holder or his or her representative.
Copyright in works
3 (1) For the purposes of this Act, copyright, in relation to a work, means the sole right to
produce or reproduce the work or any substantial part thereof in any material form whatever,
to perform the work or any substantial part thereof in public or, if the work is unpublished, to
publish the work or any substantial part thereof, and includes the sole right
a) to produce, reproduce, perform or publish any translation of the work,
(…)
f) in the case of any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, to communicate the work to
the public by telecommunication,
(…)
There are no provisions allowing for the unauthorized reproduction of a work in the context of
a company's activities.
Any unauthorized use or reproduction of a protected work represents an infringement under
the Copyright Act and could result in actions for damages as well as actions for injunctive
relief.
34 (1) Where copyright has been infringed, the owner of the copyright is, subject to this Act,
entitled to all remedies by way of injunction, damages, accounts, delivery up and otherwise
that are or may be conferred by law for the infringement of a right.
(…)
Statutory damages
38.1 (1) Subject to this section, a copyright owner may elect, at any time before final
judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of damages and profits referred to in subsection
35(1), an award of statutory damages for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for
which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally,
a) in a sum of not less than $500 and not more than $20,000 that the court considers just,
with respect to all infringements involved in the proceedings for each work or other subjectmatter, if the infringements are for commercial purposes;
Contractual rules for websites of newspaper and magazine publishers:
As you know, newspaper publishers now make part of their articles available to the general
public via the Internet.
The vast majority of newspaper publishers’ websites impose very strict terms and conditions on
the use of their content. These terms and conditions essentially aim to remind users that the
content is protected by copyright and to notify users that the content is reserved for personal
and non-commercial use (in other words, outside the context of a company's activities), with
all other use strictly prohibited.
These terms and conditions also prohibit the use of computerized tools to automatically collect
content from these sites. Here are a few examples:
WWW.LAPRESSE.CA
4. Droit d'auteur
Tous les articles, les textes, les illustrations, les images, les photographies, l'information, les
clips audio, les clips vidéo, les logiciels et les codes disponibles sur le Site Internet (le
«Contenu »), incluant la manière dont le Contenu est présenté, sont protégés par les lois
canadiennes et étrangères, notamment en matière de droit d'auteur et appartiennent à
lapresse.ca, à ses compagnies affiliées, à ses concédants de licence et\ou à la personne
reconnue comme étant le fournisseur du contenu. Le Site Internet est protégé en vertu de la
législation sur le droit d'auteur en tant que recueil et\ou compilation au sens des lois
canadiennes et étrangères. Vous vous engagez à respecter l'ensemble des autres avis de droit
d'auteur, renseignements ou restrictions sur ou dans le contenu auquel vous pouvez accéder
par l'intermédiaire du Site Internet et\ou des Fonctionnalités. lapresse.ca vous confère une
licence non-exclusive et non-transférable d'utiliser et d'afficher le Site Internet et\ou les
Fonctionnalités sur votre ordinateur ou autre dispositif électronique uniquement à des fins
de représentation sur écran monoposte et de reproduction, en un exemplaire, pour copie
de sauvegarde ou tirage sur papier, personnelles et non-commerciales, en autant que vous
n'en modifiez pas le Contenu et que vous conserviez les avis de droit d'auteur. LA
MODIFICATION, LA REPRODUCTION, LA DISTRIBUTION, LA TRANSMISSION, LA DIFFUSION, LA
REPRÉSENTATION, LA REPRODUCTION, LA MISE EN RÉSEAU, LA COMMERCIALISATION, LA
PUBLICATION, LA CONCESSION DE LICENCE, L'EXÉCUTION PUBLIQUE, LE TÉLÉCHARGEMENT, LA
CRÉATION D'ŒUVRE DÉRIVÉES, L'AFFICHAGE SUR INTERNET, LA VENTE OU TOUTE EXPLOITATION
DU SITE WEB, DU CONTENU OU DES FONCTIONNALITÉS, incluant, notamment, par la
conservation dans un serveur cache, le cadrage ou autres moyens similaires, SONT INTERDITS.
WWW.LEDEVOIR.COM
L’Éditeur vous octroie une licence limitée, non exclusive et non transférable d’utiliser le
site et de faire apparaitre sur votre ordinateur ou autre dispositif électronique, les items
de ce site, pour votre utilisation personnelle et non commerciale.
Il est strictement interdit de copier, reproduire, modifier, publier, distribuer ou participer à la
distribution, ou la vente du contenu de ce site, de créer des œuvres dérivées de celui-ci, de
traduire, télécharger, donner des licences d’utilisation ou d’exploitation, ou de quelconque
façon exploiter, les éléments apparaissant sur le site, en tout ou en partie.
Vous acceptez également de ne pas utiliser un dispositif automatique, robotisé ou manuel aux
fins de cataloguer, résumer, surveiller ou copier ce site et son contenu, pour quelque motif
que ce soit, sans l’accord préalable et écrit de l’Éditeur.
Si vous souhaitez reproduire, distribuer, conserver en archive ou faire toute autre utilisation
commerciale des éléments contenus dans ce site, ou si vous souhaitez produire des revues de
presse ou toute autre forme de surveillance médiatique à partir des éléments contenus dans ce
site, vous devez au préalable acquérir les droits de licence requis auprès de CEDROM-SNi Inc à
l’adresse [email protected].
WWW.THECHRONICLEHERALD.CA
2. The Publisher grants you a limited, non-exclusive and non-transferable license to use
and display on your computer or other electronic access device the items on this website,
for your own personal and non-commercial use only.
3. Except for personal and non-commercial use you may not copy, reproduce, modify, publish,
distribute or participate in the distribution or sale of, create derivative works from, translate,
download, grant under license or in any other way exploit, any item offered on this website, in
whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the Publisher. Furthermore, except for
personal and non-commercial use, you agree not to interfere with or circumvent the normal
operation of the website by caching, framing or deep-linking its items or by using similar
means, without the prior written consent of the Publisher.
4. With the exception of Google, Yahoo, Bing the use of any robot, spider, other automatic
device or manual process to catalogue, summarize, monitor or copy this website or its items
for any purpose without the prior written consent of the Publisher is prohibited.
5. Should you wish to make any reproduction, distribution, archiving or any other commercial
use of the items on this website, or if you wish to produce press reviews or any other kind of
media monitoring product from the contents of this website, you must request the appropriate
licensing rights from CEDROM-SNi Inc at [email protected].
In conclusion, unauthorized use of publisher websites to create press reviews represents a
violation of the terms and conditions for using these websites. In addition, the creation,
distribution and use of “links” obtained from these websites also represents a violation of the
conditions of use imposed by the publishers. This illegality extends to companies that
redistribute such links within their organization.