Copying Press Cuttings

Newspaper Licensing Agency v Marks and Spencer plc (CA TLR 15 June)

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal of Marks and Spencer against the finding of breach of copyright in copying certain articles sent to them by a cuttings agency for circulation within the company. The term ‘typographical arrangement of published editions’ in s1(1)(c) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 referred to the typographical arrangement of the whole newspaper. In deciding whether copies taken of articles supplied represented a ‘substantial part’ of the published edition from which they came for the purposes of s16(3) of the Act, the assessment was a matter of impression. Only if there had been copying of a substantial part of the copyright work would a party succeed on a claim of infringement.