Landmark Case Against the Newspaper Licensing Agency Over Unreasonable Fees

London, England, December 16, 2009 – Meltwater Group, one of the world’s leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, announced today that it has taken the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) to court over what it is considering a “link tax.” Meltwater is pursuing this legal action after the NLA threatened to sue online media monitoring companies who fail to sign up to its new content licensing agreement by January 1, 2010.
Meltwater has decided to challenge the legal basis of the NLA’s licensing scheme, and in particular the NLA's claim to be able to license hyperlinking, which Meltwater believes has no basis in English law.

The NLA, originally formed in 1996, was created to license and collect revenue from the copying and clipping of print media. Now the agency is attempting to enforce licensing agreements on sending and receiving Internet links. The NLA is targeting both companies providing media monitoring services and the customers subscribing to such services.

“Media monitoring services create value for Internet users similar to search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing,” said Jorn Lyseggen, CEO of Meltwater Group. “We use sophisticated search algorithms to help our clients find content they otherwise would have difficulties locating. The NLA’s attempt to license our clients is essentially a tax on receiving these Internet links. This fee is not only unjust and unreasonable, it is contrary to the very spirit of the Internet.”

While Meltwater respects the copyright of the NLA's members, the licensing scheme seeks to control the receipt of links to freely published content on the Internet, even though such rights are not legally granted to copyright owners.

“This is an absurd tax which we believe has no legal justification,” said Francis Ingham, director general of the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA). “We are delighted Meltwater is taking a stand against the NLA and will examine whether we can intervene to strengthen their case in the interest of our members. It is ludicrous for organisations to need a licence to receive links to coverage that is freely available to view online.”

Meltwater is referring this matter to the UK Copyright Tribunal because the company believes that the NLA's licensing scheme has no basis in English copyright law.

About Meltwater
The Meltwater Group is a privately held software company founded in Norway in 2001 committed to challenging existing business models by introducing disruptive technologies. The Meltwater Group delivers B2B solutions based on search engine technology, cloud computing and biometrics. For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.com.

Contacts:

Dan Purvis
Octopus Communications
Dan@octopuscomms.net
T: 08453 700655
M: 07595 003334