Several international print publishers announced plans last week to launch a new system they say will protect the copyright of published material on the Web and guarantee them the ability to control their electronic content.
In an orchestrated effort to halt search engines from pulling up their content without permission, the World Association of Newspapers, the European Publishers Council, the International Publishers Association and the European Newspaper Association released a statement promising that a new service would be tested by the end of the year.
The service is expected to prevent the unwanted dissemination of their published content by using software tags to alert search engines to copyright-permission information.
Although no specific details were given as to how the project, called Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP), would work, the group said in the release that it would help make their content more available, while avoiding copyright infringement.
“This system is intended to remove completely any rights conflicts between publishers and search engines,” said Gavin O’Reilly, chairman of World Association of Newspapers, the group spearheading the project. “Via ACAP, we look forward to fostering mutually beneficial relationships between publishers of original content and the search engine operators, in which the interests of both parties can be properly balanced.”
Plans call for more details to be revealed about ACAP during a full project proposal on Oct. 6 during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The project comes on the heels of a Belgian court’s ruling that Google had infringed on the copyright of several European newspapers by reproducing portions of articles in search results.
- Companies:
- Frankfurt Book Fair
- People:
- Gavin O Reilly