If you are a working journalist and make a habit of keeping an eye on what that day's newspapers are doing by visiting their websites (and who doesn't?), you may be falling foul of copyright laws.
This week the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier High Court judgment in a case involving an online, media-monitoring company - Meltwater - and the Newspaper Licensing Agency (the NLA).
Meltwater operates what is, in effect, an online cuttings service whereby its subscribers are sent links to stories on newspaper websites that are of professional interest to them. The NLA acts as a royalty collection agency for the major UK newspaper groups and licenses such services.
However, the NLA claims that those in receipt of the links - the subscribers - also need a licence as they are not covered by the terms and conditions of the newspaper websites they represent, which typically only grant a right to use their content for "personal and non-commercial purposes".
Users of Meltwater's services are typically commercial organisations such as PR firms whose industry body - the PRCA - is supporting Meltwater's action. Papers that operate behind a paywall have different terms and conditions.
As part of their deliberations, the courts have decided that anyone viewing a page of an online newspaper is making a copy of that page on their computer and is therefore subject to copyright laws. There was a technical/legal argument as to whether the copies in question were temporary copies of a kind that would qualify for an exception under the 1998 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, but the Appeal Court has decided they are not.
That ruling has drawn attention to the question of others who visit such websites as part of their professional/commercial activities - and that could include a browsing journalist researching what the papers are covering or what pictures they are using.
We are not alone though: other business users of newspaper websites may also be caught up in this, including those with a commercial interest in horse-racing form or financial advisers checking market or business information.
So do we all need to get an NLA licence now?
Probably best to wait as the issue is likely to rumble on for a while yet - the Copyright Tribunal is set to consider the issue again in the autumn and Meltwater/PRCA have indicated their intention to take the case as far as the Supreme Court.
Kevin Steele is Senior Legal Trainer at the BBC College of Journalism.
