Is it Legal to build a news aggregation website?

857 votes

Aggregation of news articles and giving hyperlinks to redirect a user to a news provider's website is not prohibited under law.

Some of the aspects you need to consider are as follows -

1. The biggest challenge for you would be to avoid claims of copyright infringement.

2. Most news providers claim copyright over their reports, articles and images. By claiming copyright, they can assert an exclusive right to communicate, store, modify their copyrighted articles.

3. A copyright violation claim can result in civil as well as criminal proceeding.

4. Apart from copyright, your App would also be exposed to risks and liabilities for violation of various laws that regulate the content of a news article itself - such as defamation, privacy, mis-reporting, right to be forgotten etc.

4. Some of the defences a news aggregation website/app can take are as follows -
(i) That no copyright vests in actual events or facts contained in the news
(ii) That news items, once published, are matters of public domain and therefore no one can assert exclusivity over them.
(iii) That by merely aggregating news items, your App is indulging in a "fair use" of copyright which is exempt under the law from infringement.
(iv) that you are merely acting as an "intermediary" and therefore exempt from liability in respect of these third party news articles.

There are of course other defences that may also be available to you under various other laws but that would require a detailed study of the functioning of your App.

LawRato LawRato

827 votes

There are several Intellectual Property Rights issues specially Copyright issues are involved in a news aggregation website. There is no specific law or judgment in India that is applicable. Therefore one has to follow best practices culled out from IPR and laws of other countries to safeguard ones interest.

Advocate Srishti Saxena LawRato