Facts, ruled America’s Supreme Court in 1918 in the “hot news doctrine”, cannot be copyrighted. But a news agency can retain exclusive use of its product so long as it has a commercial value. Now newspapers, fed up with stories being “scraped” by other websites, want that ruling made into law. Critics say that would extend copyright to facts. It would also be hard to make either regime work in practice.
Read more at The Economist.
