Change in Copyright Law: A Possible Solution to News Content Crisis?

Copyright law reform as one remedy for plummeting profits at traditional news organizations was proposed at a media affairs panel organized by the non-profit Center for Communication and hosted by Fordham University earlier this month. Dean Ringel, a partner at the New York law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel, advocated introducing compulsory licensing fees for Web-based agregators or re-distributors of news content. Under Ringel's system, sites like Google would be required to share profits with or pay a fee to any news organization whose content they post, in a system similar to the compulsory licensing system than currently manages rights for cable television and music. He noted that current copyright law protects the specific expression of information but does not protect the work necessary to obtain that information. Ringel argued that papers like the New York Times, which spend prodigious sums on reporter security in dangerous places around the globe, should get some of the revenue made by third-parties who distribute their content.