Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-25
NEWS Is PROPERTY"
Principle Established by the Su-
preme Court Decision.
from the New York Times.

From the New York Times.
BY the decision of the United States
Supreme Court handed down yester-
day in the case of the Associated
Press against the International News
Service, 1t is declared that news oh
tanned by the expenditure of money
and of labor is property and that the
courts will protect the property rights
of the owner therein. The case arose
in an action to enjoin the Interna-
tional News Service from copying
news dispatches of the Associated
Press from the early editions of its
member papers or from bulletins or
employees of member newspapers of
the Associated Press to furnish 1t with
tips" of news to be rewritten, ex-
banded and sent out as its own. The
injunctions granted by the federal
court in New York are sustained by
the Supreme Court. 1t upholds al!
the contentious of the Associated
Press and stamps as unwarranted the
charge of the defendant that the As
ISOLATED Press also had been guilty OF
practices similar to those of which the
International News Service was found
to be guilty.
The decision is of very great i'm
portance. not only to the Associated
Press. but as a protection to individ-
ual newspapers spending large sums
of money for cable and other news
specially obtained by them for their
own use. News dispatches which are
the product of their expenditure and
enterprise are now guaranteed protec-
ton against piracy. Of the practices
specifically enjoined the court declares
that they constitute IAN unauthorized
interference with the normal opera
ton of compliments legitimate bust
ness precisely at the point where the
profit is to be reaped." Freshness is
an essential element in the value OF
news. If it is purloined from its law
full owner and simultaneously distrib-
uted to the public by rival 1T is evil
dent that the rival association or
newspaper reaps without cost to itself
benefits which the owner of the news
had sought to obtain by the expendi-
ture of time, money and labor, often
large sums of money. OF such a
transaction the court says that 1T
speaks for itself. and a court OF
equity ought not to hesitate long in
characteriZing it as unfair compete
ton in business
In a dissenting opinion 1t was de-
clared that to set up a property right
in news would be to establish a mo-
nopoly in news. The courts opinion
makes it clear that this is not the
case. News of spontaneous origin is
open to anybody: reports of it may be
written and transmitted by the agents
of any organization or newspaper who
happen to be on the spot. Nobody
has ever thought to establish a mo-
nopoly of the right to report an earth
quake a conf1agration, dethrove-
ment or a revolution. But when a
ws-gathering organization like the
Associated Press or an individual
newspaper has secured a report OF
any of these events written by its
own agents. and has caused it to be
transmitted, 1t may be thousands OF
miles by cable, at large cost. that
news report is property. 1t has value
in the hands of it's owner: and to hold
that any other association OF news
paper may at once seize upon that re-
port and. without cost to itself save
that of the act of seizure. may deliver
/. to it's own subscribers. thus secur-
ing for itself gratuitous advantages
which it's rivals have spent much
! money to obtain. would be to make
plain theft legitimate form Of enter
prise. That the pirating of news in
this manner is an unlawful act and
may be restrained by injunction is
what the court decides. If a contrary
decision had been reached by the
court the owner of the news would
have no protection except by keeping
it secret, a process by which, as the
court observes, the owner would des
prive himselfs of his only valuable inS
terest in his own property. The mos
ment of distribution to the publi6
through early editions of newspapers
or by posting of bulletins is the one
seized upon by the news Israte for
converting it to its own use. That 10
where protection is needed. that 10
where it is extended by the decision
of the Supreme Court.