Best-selling British newspaper The Sun has accused MailOnline of copyright infringement, alleging that the popular news website has stolen its ‘exclusive content’ on more than one occasion.
According to reports, The Sun’s legal team has alleged that MailOnline misused exclusive footage of disgraced Sunderland footballer Adam Johnson – who was recently imprisoned for sexual assault.
The newspaper has also accused MailOnline of ‘stealing’ another one of its exclusive stories about reality TV star Ferne McCann.
The Sun is claiming copyright fees of approximately £50,000 for MailOnline’s unauthorised use of the stories, which is known in the industry as “widespread pilfering”.
Typically, news organisations have the legal right to preserve any ‘exclusive content’ in a bid to attract more readers – while rival news companies must pay a syndication fee in order to use such content in their own publications. Re-users also must share a source link where necessary.
Due to a downward trend in digital advertising revenues in recent years, the battle for readers amongst news companies has intensified in recent years, and a failure to comply with such rules can often lead to claims of “pilfering”.
According to reports, an unnamed executive for The Sun has said: “This is piracy and MailOnline is getting increasingly blatant about it”.
In response, a spokesperson for MailOnline has said: “We have roundly rejected all of these complaints and will be happy to defend them robustly should that be necessary”.