Singapore Press Holdings and Yahoo are both claiming each other infringed the other’s copyright, Business Week reported.
Singapore Press Holidings owns eighteen newspapers, according to its website.
Singapore Press Holdings claims Yahoo has been “free-riding” and plagiarizing the company’s newspapers’ work, and sued the company over 23 articles in November, Business Week explained.
In response, Yahoo claims Singapore Press Holdings has been “wrongly using its images and articles on a website” and defended itself itself the copyright charges. According to Today Online, Yahoo “listed three instances – two written stories and one photograph – where SPH had allegedly infringed its copyright. Yahoo News claims that the articles in question were news events in the public interest and that the articles were “insubstantial and insignificant,” according to Business Week.
Singapore Press Holdings rejected that defense, and claimed “This was not done for the public interest, as claimed by Yahoo, but instead in furtherance of its own vested financial interest.”
Business Week noted that in 2009, Yahoo wanted to “reproduce news content” from Singapore Press Holdings, but the “negotiations between the two companies broke down last year.” According to a Dec. 28 Bloomberg News article, Yahoo “relied on Singapore Press’s articles to provide content on its website to raise traffic and build readership without having to expend financial resources, according to the lawsuit.”
In a Dec. 28 post on Singapore Press Holdings’ website, the company said it “filed its Reply and Defence to Counterclaim” by Yahoo. In the post, Singapore Press Holdings reiterated its claim that Yahoo plagiarized and infringed its copyright. Singapore Press Holdings added that the accused content isn’t just facts but “identical paragraphs, sentences, phrases and/or words.”
We have written to Singapore Press Holdings and Yahoo asking for evidence of their claims and more information. We will update with any response.
UPDATE: 12/30/2011 3:55 PM EST: Fixed datestamp.
UPDATE: 1/9/2011: 12:46 PM EST: Added information about the failed 2009 negotiations.