Online magazine nicked our headlines

A TOP Japanese newspaper has won damages against an online newspaper for nicking its headlines.

Yomiuri Shimbun won about £1500, from the Digital Alliance Corporation. The Intellectual Property High Court, a special branch court of the Tokyo High Court said that a headline was the paper's intellectual property.

It is the first ruling in Japan giving protection to news headlines, however they exist in a Japanese legal grey area and are not mentioned in Japan's Copyright Law.

The Digital Alliance would print the headlines on its site and would link to Yahoo. Yomiuri says Yahoo pays it for its super soaraway news and headlines.

Digital Alliance had not nicked the stories, but had taken the headlines. More here. µ