The Shetland Copyright Battle
The following document was downloaed from the Shetland News site on 30Jan97. It appears as it was sent, with some words broken. Readers may wish to get their own copy from www.shetland-news.co.uk/. In the meantime, this will allow the basic contents of the document to be viewed. FACTNet
Fact pack: The Shetland Times v. Jonathan Wills and The Shetland News
6th December 1996
Dear reader
Thank you for downloading this file.
It contains some additional information and thoughts on the current legal battle over free linking of one free, public-access website to another, on the Internet.
It also contains text copies of all the stories published by The Shetland News regarding the case.
Please keep a regular watch on our website (http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/>, for updates on the situation.
Thank you
Graeme Storey (Technical director, The Shetland News) email <production@shetland-news.co.uk>
Jonathan Wills (Editor and Managing Director, The Shetland News) email <editor@shetland-news.co.uk>
Other people who are willing to be contacted by email, concerning this issue
"Jim Thompson, UC Riverside (909) 787-3221" <Thompson@citrus.ucr.edu>
"Tim Gopsall, editor of the NUJ magazine 'Journalist'" <the.journalist@mcr1.poptel.org.uk>
"Prof. Charles Oppenheim, de Montfort University" <CHARLES@dmu.ac.uk>
Short Chronology of events
23rd November 1995 The Shetland News went on-line as a daily, Internet only newsmagazine.
30th November 1995 Hit rate of over 1,000 per day achieved over the first six days.
30th December 1995 Hit rate now 2,000 per day, as people log on from around the world.
29th February 1996 The Shetland Times put some of their weekly stories on-line.
21st March 1996 Shetland News averaging 2,700 hits per day, Times average 320 hits per day.
March - Present Shetland News expanded to over 200 pages of news, comment, tourist information, environmental information, features, humour, and several major advertisers sig ned up.
13th October 1996 Shetland News pointed readers to some Shetland Times stories, using hypertext l inks. Daily hit rate average at time was Shetland News 5,000 and Shetland Times 400.
16th October 1996 Shetland News hits remaining steady, but Shetland Times up to 600 per day.
15th October 1996 Fax sent by Mr Wishart, demanding immediate withdrawal of links to his site.
24th October 1996 Interim Interdict (injunction) granted in the Court of Session, Edinburgh, to p revent The Shetland News putting up HTML links to The Shetland Times, until suc h time as a court hearing examine the issue.
4th November 1996 The National Union of Journalists agree to take up the court case on behalf of their member of 20 years standing, Dr. Jonathan Wills.
This is a typed copy of the actual interdict.
24th October 1996 Lord Hamilton
The Lord Ordinary having resumed consideration of the Cause allows the Summons to be amended as proposed at the Bar; ad interim interdicts the Defenders, thei r employees, agents or anyone acting on their behalf or with their authority fr om (1.) storing in any medium by electronic means or otherwise copying or (2.) including in any service operated by the Defenders on the internet any headline , text or photograph from any edition of "The Shetland Times" newspaper or the Pursuers' internet web site WWW.Shetland-Times.Co.UK; finds the Defenders liabl e to the Pursuers in the expenses of today's and yesterday's hearings and remit s an account thereof, when lodged, to the Auditor of Court to tax.
"A. C. Hamilton"
Lord Hamilton raises a very interesting question if we can't even store materia l electronically, because that is how a computer looks at web pages, and then y ou can click back and forward without reloading them. The computer stores them as you are looking at them, and then you can continue to look at them off-line. Does the judgment mean that no-one can use the software that we all use, becau se that is how it operates ??
That means, strictly speaking, that we can't even look at their website on-line , because the web browser software stores the page on our computers as we look at it.
Where does that end ?? Does it affect everyone, or only us ?? In other words, could anyone be in contempt of the interdict if they even look at their site ??
Graeme Storey (Technical director, The Shetland News) email <production@shetland-news.co.uk>
Text of a statement by Robert Wishart, managing director of The Shetland Times, on 25th October 1996.
"Recent statements by Dr Jonathan Wills are an attempt to lay down a smoke-scre en over the issues.
"We took action to prevent him presenting our news stories as part of his web s ite. These stories are gathered by professional staff at considerable expense t o the company.
"Put simply, this is an argument over whether a publisher on the internet retai ns copyright in any material once it goes "on-line". My view is that by incorpo rating our copyright material into his news service he infringes our copyright. The technical process by which this is achieved is irrelevant.
"How Dr Wills arrives at the conclusion that the ruling makes the internet in i ts present form illegal I don't know. There is no restriction on "free" access to the internet and we would be perfectly happy with a proper link to our home page so that readers can have access to our reports in their intended context.
"Our successful action at the Court of Session demonstrates that this is by no means a "frivolous" action as claimed by Dr Wills. On the contrary it is a case which will be of vital interest to every publisher on the internet. Had our ac tion failed it would have meant that the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 198 8 would no longer apply to any material published on the internet.
"I have every confidence that if Dr Wills wishes to pursue the matter we will r eceive support from other publishers on the internet.
"It is quite clear that Shetland News were driven to this action because they w ere unable to provide a proper news service on their own. In the meantime we wi ll continue to develop our internet site as a quality product.
"Dr Wills' attempts to use his web site to generate nuisance mail and phone cal ls is exactly the sort of infantile action I have come to expect from him. We r eally should be arguing about the principles involved. As a part-time journalis t himself one would have thought he would have some understanding of the protec tion which copyright laws offer to writers and publishers.
"Further statements on any further outbursts by Dr Wills may or may not be fort hcoming depending on how ridiculous they become. Watch this space. "
This is what was reported in The Shetland Times on 25th October 1996.
(Jonathan Wills and I consider some of this to be defamatory, and also in possi ble contempt of court. The presumption of guilt seems to be a part of the way i n which Robert Wishart is now addressing the issue)
The Shetland Times reported that,
"The Shetland Times has won an interim interdict banning Bressay-based journali st Jonathan Wills from including the paper's stories for use on his own Interne t news service.
"Lord Hamilton yesterday effectively upheld a complaint in the Court of Session made by The Shetland Times that Dr Will's use of stories written by The Shetla nd Times' reporters was a breach of copyright under the Designs and Patents Act 1988.
"Managing director of The Shetland Times Robert Wishart had written to Dr Wills asking him to immediately withdraw headlines, news, photographs and other mate rial from his Internet publication The Shetland News which had been incorporate d directly from the paper's own web site.
"In a letter to Dr Wills, Mr Wishart wrote: "As this is a clear infringement of our copyright we must ask for the immediate withdrawal of this. We would be ob liged if you could respond to this as soon as possible ... failing which we wil l be forced to take further action."
"However, Dr Wills accused Mr Wishart of being a "silly billy" and said: "At no time have we infringed your undisputed copyright, nor have we made any use wha tsoever of your material in our own pages.
""We don't need your written permission to put up links to your site, or to any other. It would be nice, once you're feeling better, if you could reciprocate - rather than threaten to retaliate."
"In effect Lord Hamilton upheld The Shetland Times' complaint that Dr Wills' us e of material from the paper was in breach of copyright rules and regulations.
"Dr Wills immediately accused The Shetland Times of trying to block free access to the Internet and said in a written statement: "I respect the law and will a bide by the terms of the interdict when it is formally served.
""I am confident that, when the court studies the full facts of this case, it w ill reject The Shetland Times' application and award full costs against them fo r what I can only describe as a frivolous, vexatious and malicious legal action , clearly designed to cripple our small, new company financially and to gain a monopoly of Internet news publishing in Shetland."
"Mr Wishart welcomed Lord Hamilton's decision and maintained that The Shetland News had no right to copy, publish, reproduce or transmit the company's copyrig ht material in hard copy, electronic media, or in any other way.
""Obviously I'm delighted with this common-sense decision. That the Shetland Ne ws should be reduced to passing off our journalists' work as part of their web site demonstrates how difficult it is for a part-time freelance to provide a co mprehensive news service," said Mr Wishart.
"He added: "We shall continue to develop our Internet site as a quality product and this ruling demonstrates our legal right to protect it. It's a shame those involved with Shetland News refused our request to desist from this practice a nd made legal action necessary."
"It is not yet known if Dr Wills will appeal against the decision."
Some other thoughts concerning the case:
By putting links to The Shetland Times, we (The Shetland News) did not increase our readership at all. We did not gain one single extra hit because of the lin ks. All that we did provide was a more comprehensive news 'digest' service for the readers we had *already* attracted.
How, I ask, could we possibly have been presenting the story out of context (as Mr Wishart seemed to think), when we have simply pointed someone to what the S hetland Times have prepared and put on *their* site ?? The stories on their sit e are complete in as far as they have a Shetland Times masthead at the top, the headline of the story, and a copyright notice at the bottom, how to contact th em at their office, etc.
We actually increased the ease with which people could view their stories, beca use their site is frame-based, and The Shetland News is not. Thus, a reader who did *not* have a frames capable browser could access the Shetland Times story *via* our site, and see just the story, and not have his browser throw a wobble r at the frames it would have tried to cope with if they had tried to access th e same story through the Shetland Times home page.
We were bringing them readers. Within 5 days of putting links to their site, we had become the most common URL referring hits to them. By a long way. I have t he figures to prove it.
We were doing them a favour, and at the same time uniting the Internet communit y with a better news service all round.
After only 10 days of us putting occasional links to their site, this action wa s taken against us.
Graeme Storey (Technical director, The Shetland News) email <production@shetland-news.co.uk>
News stories, etc. on The Shetland News, about the action (16th October to 13th November)
Internet publisher doesn't want the hits - 16th October 1996
In a highly unusual move, The Shetland News has been told by the publisher of The Shetland Times to stop putting up links to pages in the on-line edition of Shetland's weekly printed newspaper .
Most Internet publishers are desperate to log as many hits as they can, but in a fax last night (Tuesday) to Dr Jonathan Wills, editor of The Shetland News, Robert Wishart, managing director of The Shetland Times Ltd, said:
'It has been brought to my attention that you are making use of headlines, news, photographs and other material from The Shetland Times and our 'On Line' ser vice.
'As this is a clear infringement of our copyright we must ask for the immediat e withdrawal of this and your written undertaking not to use any such material in the future without first obtaining our written permission.
'We would be obliged if you could respond to this as soon as possible and no l ater than noon tomorrow (Wednesday) failing which we will be forced to take fur ther action in this matter.'
Choking back tears of mirth, Dr Wills replied as follows: 'Thank you so much fo r your fax message, which has given me no end of fun. It's good to see that you have not lost your legendary sense of humour after all these years.
'Just in case there is the teeniest chance that you were being serious, let me explain a few points of which you, as a relative newcomer to the Internet publishing business, may not be aware.
'The principle of the Internet is free access. We have no turnstile where we ve t or charge readers. Nor do you. What we have done, are doing and will continue to do is direct our readers to your website on those occasions when your six e ditorial staff manage to come up with a story which our single member of staff has either missed or not got around to writing. You are in good company. We do the same for The Herald, CNN, Le Monde, La Stampa and dozens of other Internet news publishers. Take a look at the Icelandic volcano site, for example: it put s into perspective your own little explosion this evening (which I am sure you will regret and have a quiet giggle over, once you calm down and realise what a silly billy you've been).
'At no time have we infringed your undisputed copyright, nor have we made any u se whatsoever of your material in our own pages. If we did, we would pay you ou r normal, single-use, electronic reproduction fees at NUJ rates. Where we give a free link to a Shetland Times story which we think would interest our readers , we send them straight to your very own page, not to one of ours. When they get there they are looking at The Shetl and Times, not at The Shetland News. They know this because the page carries yo ur own banner and copyright notice. To make doubly sure that the reader is not confused, we make no alterations to your pages at all. A moment's reflection wi ll tell you that we couldn't possibly do that, anyway. We also leave untouched any pictures you may be carrying. Beca use they are of such low technical quality, there is no chance that our readers could possibly imagine they were still looking at the Shetland News site.
'We don't need your written permission to put up links to your site, or to any other. You ought to be jolly pleased, because we are bringing you hundreds of r eaders a day whom you wouldn't otherwise have. In fact, we would normally charg e someone for the privilege of such links from our busy site but, in the intere sts of our readers and out of a feeling of solidarity with your complementary W WW operation, we wouldn't dream of sending you an invoice. You see, whatever yo u feel about us, we don't regard you as a competitor.
'It would be nice, once you're feeling better, if you could reciprocate - rathe r than threaten to retaliate. But I'll quite understand if you don't do that ri ght away. These things take time, after all. I know it's difficult to understan d but the WWW is quite different from print media. Different rules apply and at first they are surprising.
'In the meantime, if you have any pages which you feel are not getting the hits they deserve, don't hesitate to send me another fax message (or even an e-mail ) and I'll see if I can arrange a link for you. No, really, I will. You see, I' m not cross with you at all.
Yours sincerely,
(Jonathan Wills)'
Shetland Times wins legal ban against The Shetland News - 24/10/96
Statement by Dr Jonathan Wills, editor of The Shetland News and managing direct or of the Internet publishers, Zetnews Ltd:
'This morning (THURS), in an unprecedented attempt to block free access to the Internet, The Shetland Times Ltd obtained interim interdict in the Court of Ses sion, preventing The Shetland News from directing its readers to the pages of t he Internet edition of The Shetland Times.
'The Shetland Times Ltd alleges breach of copyright. In fact, no such breach oc curs when we put up free links from our pages to theirs. What we have been doin g is bringing The Shetland Times readers which otherwise they would not have ha d. It is the equivalent of the publisher of The Guardian directing readers to a n interesting article in The Independent. I thought we were doing them a favour and expected them to reciprocate.
'I respect the law and will abide by the terms of the interdict when it is form ally served. In place of the former links to The Shetland Times, The Shetland N ews will carry a message informing our readers that their freedom of choice has been legally censored at the instigation of Robert Wishart, managing director of The Shetland Times Ltd. I am sure readers will draw their own conclusions.
'I am confident that, when the court studies the full facts of this case, it wi ll reject The Shetland Times' application and award full costs against them for what I can only describe as a frivolous, vexatious and malicious legal action, clearly designed to cripple our small, new company financially and to gain a m onopoly of Internet news publishing in Shetland.
'The managing director of The Shetland Times must know that the basic principle of the Internet is free access. This access is via links from one website to a nother. By attempting to block such links, he is in effect saying that the Inte rnet in its present form is illegal. This is a test case and, if upheld, will u ndoubtedly require a new Act of Parliament to let the Internet continue in its present form in the UK.
'The hilarious side of it is that The Shetland Times is the first Internet news publisher I have heard of to turn away readers and attempt to publish in secre t. Most are desperate to get as many 'hits' as they can.
'What is not so amusing is that, as The Shetland Times Ltd also knows, I cannot afford to defend this action. The preposterous claim that The Shetland News ha s infringed the copyright of The Shetland Times Ltd is a flimsy veil for a pers onal spite which has existed since Mr Wishart was obliged to settle out of cour t after illegally dismissing me as editor of The Shetland Times in January 1990 .
'The Shetland Times also implies that I and Zetnews Ltd have no right to use th e title 'The Shetland News'. In fact, permission to use this title was given to me in 1990 by the late Dr Mortimer Manson, the last editor of the print newspa per of the same name, which closed in 1963.'
National publicity for Internet test case - 25th October 1996
The attempt by The Shetland Times Ltd to have the basis of the Internet declare d illegal is drawing national media attention today (FRI).
Following yesterday's decision by Lord Hamilton in the Court of Session at Edin burgh, The Shetland News has been forced to remove all links to the pages of Th e Shetland Times on-line edition. Our links to other WWW news sites are unaffec ted and remain in place.
Shetland Times managing director Robert Wishart told the court that links from The Shetland News breached his copyright and hindered his efforts to attract ad vertising to his pages.
BBC Radio One and other national media have featured the affair, which is seen as a test case and is believed to be the first time a UK Internet publisher has asked the courts to stop people making links to a public domain website.
Lord Hamilton's ruling means that The Shetland News is banned from making such links for several months, until a full hearing is held into the issues raised b y the case.
Legal expenses could run well above five thousand pounds. Shetland News editor Jonathan Wills, speaking today from Orkney, where he is on his annual ten day h oliday, said he planned to launch a fighting fund:
'We are building up a new, small business which, while it is paying its way, do es not yet earn the directors and shareholders any income. There's no way we ca n pay lawyers to take this case the full distance, which of course is why The S hetland Times took this legal action.
'They know that if they lose at the full hearing, as they certainly will, they could still win financially by forcing us out of business and leaving them with a monopoly. I am appealing to everyone who believes in the free exchange of in formation on the Internet to help us fight this case.
'A special bank account is being set up and details will be published early nex t week when I return from my family holiday, which Mr Wishart's vindictive cour t action has now ruined.'
Demonstrating that he still does not understand how Internet links work, Mr Wis hart today repeated his claim that a link from The Shetland News to Shetland Ti mes pages was in breach of copyright. He also said The Shetland News had attemp ted to 'pass off' Shetland Times reporters' work as part of The Shetland News w ebsite.
Dr Wills immediately responded by asking Mr Wishart to withdraw, correct and ap ologise for 'this defamatory statement'.
Unlike the daily, 250-page Shetland News, which routinely achieves hit rates ma ny times higher than The Shetland Times on-line edition, Mr Wishart has not yet attracted any significant paid advertising since he launched an electronic edi tion in February, three months after The Shetland News pioneered the idea.
Shetland Times rejects peace offer (Test case looms on Internet copyright ) - 29th October 1996
The Shetland Times last night (Monday) failed to respond to a peace offer from Zetnews Ltd, publishers of The Shetland News, in an unprecedented legal dispute over copyright on the Internet.
Dr Jonathan Wills, Zetnews managing director and editor of The Shetland News - Britain's first local Internet paper - said he was 'saddened but not surprised' at the apparent rejection of what he described as a 'generous' offer, designed to spare The Shetland Times the 'embarrassment and expense' of a lengthy test case in Scotland's supreme civil court, the Court of Session.
Last Thursday Lord Hamilton granted an interim interdict preventing The Shetlan d News from making Internet links from its World Wide Web pages, to pages opera ted by The Shetland Times.
It may be several months before the case for full interdict is heard.
The Shetland Times allege that the free links, provided at the expense of The S hetland News, constitute infringement of copyright.
Last night (Friday) Dr Wills said: 'The Shetland Times have misinterpreted Lord Hamilton's judgment as ''in effect'' favouring their arguments. In fact, the i nterim interdict merely puts the situation back to what it was before The Shetl and Times made their complaint. That is normal court procedure. The court has y et to decide the issue.
'When it does, I am confident we will win. The practice of linking to other Int ernet publications is universal and, indeed, the very basis of the World Wide W eb. This is a test case because, if The Shetland Times were to succeed in their frivolous and vindictive action, there would have to be a new Act of Parliamen t allowing the Internet to continue to function in this country, in its present form.
'We have never made or kept copies of The Shetland Times on-line edition. So th e question of copyright does not arise. There is no case to answer. All we hav e done is direct our readers to The Shetland Times on-line edition, thus doing everyone a favour. It is like someone putting a poster on a shop window and th en drawing customers' attention to someone else's poster on the other side of t he window.'
The Shetland News was founded in November last year and has already attracted o ver a million readers in more than 60 countries. Its 250 pages carry paid adver tising from organisations and companies, including P&O Ferries and Shetland Isl ands Tourism. Readership of The Shetland Times electronic edition has not been disclosed but the paper's web pages have not attracted any significant paid adv ertising since the venture started in February this year.
The offer to settle the dispute was made in a letter from Dr Wills to The Shetl and Times Ltd on Sunday. The full text was as follows:
'In the hope of settling the current dispute between us promptly, economically and to the satisfaction of all concerned, I hereby make the following offer to the directors of The Shetland Times Ltd, on behalf of myself and Zetnews Ltd (p ublishers of The Shetland News).
'If The Shetland Times Ltd will undertake to apply immediately to the Court of Session to lift the interim interdict, and will also agree to pay all my and Z etnews Ltd's vouchered legal expenses to date, I will undertake to:
'1 Instruct my solicitors and counsel to take no action in the matter of the fi nancial damages suffered by myself and Zetnews as a result of The Shetland Time s Ltd s proceedings, nor in the matter of the prima facie defamation of myself, recently published by your managing director.
'2 Ensure that all references to this affair are permanently removed from the p ages of The Shetland News.
'3 Make no further public reference to the details of the case, while reserving the right to comment on the general issue of copyright and the Internet.
'4 Ensure that, whenever a link is provided in future from the pages of The She tland News to pages of The Shetland Times on-line edition, the link will carry a legend saying 'This is a link to a Shetland Times copyright report'. I am wil ling to discuss a mutually agreed alternative wording if this is not acceptable to you.
'5 Ensure that, in accordance with our invariable practice to date, no Shetland Times on-line pages, logos, icons, photographs, artwork, text or other editori al material are ever stored in electronic form on our website or in our compute rs, except where such material has to be stored for short periods, for use by s uch web browser software as we employ.
'I believe this to be a generous and fair offer which will save you the expense and embarrassment of a protracted court case, from which The Shetland Times Lt d is most unlikely to emerge with credit. It will also save the local and wider Internet community considerable distress and dislocation.
' My proposal has the added advantage of maintaining diverse electronic news me dia in Shetland, providing readers with wider choice and, on those occasions wh en we do make links to your site in future, of considerably enhancing your own readership at no expense to yourselves.
'I ask for your response in writing, by fax or messenger, by 5pm tomorrow, Mond ay 28th October.
'If your response is favourable, I am content that this should remain a private letter and that we should agree a joint public statement on the following line s: Following discussions between The Shetland Times Ltd and Zetnews Ltd, the d irectors of both companies have agreed an amicable solution to the current disp ute between them. No further public comment on the matter will be made by eithe r company.
'If you do not agree to this offer, I shall feel obliged to publish it in full (so that our readers and customers are made aware that I and Zetnews Ltd have t ried to settle this amicably) and to instruct my solicitors to prepare a detail ed and vigorous defence of your action for interdict. Your own solicitors may a lready have alerted you to the startling misinterpretation which your managing director appears to have placed upon Lord Hamilton s grant of interim interdict .
'I look forward to hearing from you.
'Yours faithfully
(Jonathan Wills) Managing director, Zetnews Ltd'
Internet publishing boom in Shetland - 1st November 1996
Statistics published on the Internet yesterday (Thursday) show that Shetland is becoming a major electronic publishing centre.
The islands' two electronic newspapers, The Shetland News and The Shetland Time s, are gaining more than 10,000 'hits' between them every day. The larger of th e two, The Shetland News, is heading for two million hits by its first annivers ary on November 23.
A 'hit' is a single visit to a page on a computer newspaper and 10,000 hits equ ates to around 6,800 readers - because many readers go to more than one page.
The figures, compiled independently, are the Internet's equivalent of the Audit Bureau of Circulation reports used by conventional newspapers.
Dr Jonathan Wills, managing director of Zetnews Ltd, which publishes The Shetla nd News, said yesterday: 'What these figures show is the amazing growth in read ership since we started The Shetland News as an experiment, just under a year a go. The figures are an under-estimate because many central computers on the Int ernet store our pages for quicker access and this does not show up in the recor ds.
'The secret of success is updating our 250-page news magazine every day. Surpri singly, only about five per cent of our readers live in Shetland. Because of em igration from the islands over the past century and a half, there are now hundr eds of thousands of people with Shetland connections all over the world and the y're a big part of our audience.'
He said The Shetland News accounted for 83 per cent of Shetland's daily hits an d three quarters of the information downloaded by surfers, to read on their own home or office computers.
'Interestingly, it appears that we trebled the Shetland Times' much smaller rea dership when we began making links from our pages to theirs early in October,' Dr Wills said. 'Unfortunately, they took this as an assault on their copyright rather than the friendly gesture which it was, and they've obtained an interim interdict preventing us giving them an even wider audience.'
A hearing in the test case, which will decide for the first time whether links between Internet sites are legal, is expected around November 18 at the Court o f Session in Edinburgh.
Both papers rely on the services of Zetnet Services, Ltd, the nationwide, local -call-rate access provider run from Lerwick, Shetland.
Shetland News is a parasite, says Wishart - 6th December 1996
Shetland Times boss Robert Wishart today (FRI) attacks the National Union of Jo urnalists for supporting The Shetland News in the Internet links court case and accuses Shetland News editor Jonathan Wills of being a cynical, hysterical and unprofessional parasite.
In a statement to the BBC's legal correspondent, Joshua Rozenberg, Mr Wishart s aid: 'We asked Shetland News to stop using our copyright material on their news serv ice but they refused. We were clearly left with no alternative but to resort to legal channels. We regret this, but the terms of their reply left no room for discussion.
'Recent comments on the implications for the future of the internet have been g rossly overstated in the increasingly hysterical and cynical 'Press Releases' p ut out by Shetland News. We have no intention or desire to restrict 'free acces s' to material published on the internet. Both Shetland News and Shetland Times copy remains available to anyone who wants it. The action does not restrict th e legitimate use of the internet such as viewing web pages, linking sites, or a ny other "normal" internet activity.
'Our action is solely to protect our company and its employees from a parasitic activity which, allowed to run unchecked, would make it impossible for publish ers to reap the rewards of their efforts and destroy the principle of copyright on any material published on the internet.
'I understand that the National Union of Journalists supports this unprofession al behaviour and deplore the union's involvement in an argument between two com mercial organisations. This is totally at odds with the interests of NUJ member s at The Shetland Times,' the Shetland Times managing director said.
Dr Wills commented: 'Sadly, it is clear that Mr Wishart still does not understa nd how the Internet works. His personal remarks would be actionable, were they not so hilariously funny.
'There is still time for him to accept the generous offer we have made to settl e this dispute out of court. It is hardly in the interests of my NUJ colleagues at The Shetland Times to have their employer wasting large sums on lawyers in this futile and destructive court action. The money might be better used to rew ard his staff.'
Mr Rozenberg's report on the test case, filmed in Shetland over the past two da ys, is scheduled to appear at 1pm, 6pm and 9pm on BBC1 television news today, a nd on the BBC TV World Service at various times throughout the day.
A
