Yahoo counter-sues Singapore media firm over copyright infringement

INTERNET MEDIA PORTAL Yahoo has counter-sued Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) over the alleged copyright infringement of articles on its news web site.

Yahoo claims that SPH, which publishers The Straits Times, copied a number of its articles on the STOMP web site, its citizen journalism outlet.

The move follows a similar lawsuit filed by SPH last month claiming that Yahoo illegally reproduced a number of its newspaper articles over the past year. SPH wants Yahoo to pay an unspecified amount of damages for its alleged copyright infringement.

Yahoo denies infringing SPH's copyright, citing the "fundamental principle that copyright law does not protect facts and information". It also defended its use of SPH material by saying that the public has a right to be informed of news and current events in the region, according to the Economic Times.

Last month Yahoo said it intended to "vigorously defend ourselves", and clearly this meant going on the attack.

The tit-for-tat lawsuit looks like it is mainly designed to get SPH to drop its own lawsuit, and Yahoo likely is hoping that both companies can come to an agreement to leave the legal arena.

The two news giants have been battling for advertising dollars in Singapore, so it is not surprising that they are concerned about alleged copyright infringement by rivals. If SPH wins its case that could have a knock-on effect on other news aggregators, including Google's Hosted News, so Yahoo will likely have other media companies and news outlets supporting its counter-suit.

If these lawsuits aren't settled out of court, we can expect this legal wrangling to run and run for years. µ