AP Sues News Site for Copyright Infringement

The Associated Press is taking news aggregator Moreover to court, for allegedly posting and archiving AP wire stories without permission. The lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court demands a stop to the practice and unspecified damages. The service doesn’t fall under fair use, in the AP's eyes, because Moreover copies headlines wholesale, without any transformative value, explains paidContent.org.

The Associated Press spends hundreds of millions producing its content, the news service's CEO says. “When someone uses our content without our permission, they are free-riding on our newsgathering and our reporting of news from around the world.” VeriSign, Moreover's owner, declined to comment. Moreover also violated trademarks, the suit alleges, by referring to the AP as a news source. (More Associated Press stories.)