World's Largest News Organization To Monitor Web Use Of Its Content

The world's largest news organization has turned to a technology company to make sure no one is using its online content without authorization.

Attributor announced Thursday that it will monitory and identify copyrighted material from the Associated Press so AP can determine who is using its work and how.

The AP is a not-for-profit news cooperative, which creates and distributes content for its members, subscribers, and commercial customers. In addition to generating its own content, the wire service has agreements with members, such as newspapers and other news organizations, that allow it to pick up stories and distribute them to other members.

Attributor will monitor and analyze the use of AP content and document where and how it is displayed on the Internet. Attributor said the arrangement with AP is part of the news organization's larger strategic initiative to safeguard intellectual property rights to its content, while enabling new licensing and distribution models.

"Our agreement with Attributor will enable AP to safeguard its investment in creating and distributing news reports, while assuring licensees that unauthorized use will not diminish the value of their licenses," AP General Counsel Srinandan Kasi said in a statement. "These services are part of the next-generation licensing and enforcement services we plan to provide to our global network of members and subscribers."

Attributor said it will "continuously monitor billions of pages on the Internet and perform comparison analysis against AP content to provide a customized view of content usage, including a context sensitive understanding of compliance with applicable licensing and legal requirements." Attributor will initially monitor and document use of AP text. The company plans to test its comparison technology on other types of AP media content as well.

"Attributor aims to bring transparency and accountability to the online content economy," Attributor CEO Jim Brock said in a statement. "As one of the largest producers and distributors of online content, AP is a perfect first implementation for our highly scalable platform. In addition to helping publishers of all kinds protect the value of content assets for authorized licensees, we will also help them capture additional editorial and advertising value."

Attributor said its services also will be used with news outlets that exchange editorial content or information through AP. Attributor and AP said they will also explore development and distribution of potential editorial, licensing, and advertising applications based on the Attributor platform and AP's content distribution systems.