Associated Press v. Meltwater U.S. Holdings, Inc.

Associated Press v. Meltwater
Seal of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Court	United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Full case name	The Associated Press, v. Meltwater U.S. Holdings, INC.; Meltwater News U.S., INC.; and Meltwater News U.S. 1, INC.
Decided	March 21, 2013
Docket nos.	1:12-cv-01087
Defendant	Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc
Prosecution	Associated Press
Case history
Subsequent actions	Meltwater appealed and the case was settled.
Holding
The court held that Meltwater's copying was not protected under the fair use doctrine and it was infringing on AP's copyright.
Court membership
Judge sitting	Denise Cote
Keywords
fair use, copyright

Associated Press v. Meltwater U.S. Holdings, Inc. (S.D.N.Y. March 21, 2013) was a district court case in which the Associated Press (AP) brought suit against Meltwater Group in U.S. (Meltwater) for clipping and sharing news items under copyright infringement and "hot news" misappropriation under New York common law. In a cross-motion for summary judgement, Meltwater argued they were not infringing under the requirements of fair use. Meltwater claimed that their service was transformative and therefore non-infringing on copyright. The court held that Meltwater's copying was not protected under the fair use doctrine and it was infringing on AP's copyright.^[1]

A parallel case filed on the same grounds in the UK, however, was decided the other way in 2013 (in favor of Meltwater and against the equivalent newspaper licensing business) by the UK Supreme Court, subject to questions referred to the European Court of Justice and intended to clarify matters of a cross-border nature.