Broadcasting (Jan - Dec 1935)

Fr Court Upholds Rights to News (Continued from page 11) Such news, it was claimed, fes to be fresh and interesting jr it has become generally si <pn. For that reason, it was ended that the station has be3 the competitor of the AP and lewspaper members in the ob^fiing and distribution of news. spuch competition," the opinion * es in reviewing the contentions 1 che AP, "necessarily involves I i|lry and business competition in ^ lig the first to obtain and dis3 lute such news for the purpose popularizing and making more active the respective advertismediums of the defendant's [o station and complainant and lewspaper members." '(he court recited that the AP , also charged that KVOS had ! rganization of its own to gather js, except for some local items, 1 on the contrary regularly and tinuously "follows the practice -pirating' the news, intelligence information gathered at great iense by complainant and its -nbers." This was held to be lair competition by the complain, on the ground that the station ible to "spread and disseminate, oughout the territory served by station, in advance of dissemiion by complainant's members, same identical news which is d for and obtained by the mems from complainant." Continu:e of this "pirating" of news, it s alleged, would cause the AP i its members to suffer "irrepare injury and damage." la i Temporary Order NOV. 13 the court had anted the temporary restraining 'der, instructing the station not ! "pirate, appropriate, use or sseminate" any of the news vthered by the AP or its merries during a period of not less an 24 hours after publication. • VOS then filed a motion to smiss the bill in equity, citing J imerous grounds. On the allega 1 !>n of pilfering news, the opinion ought out that L. H. Darwin, in half of KVOS, categorically dej fed these allegations and set forth any news sources other than AP. bgan Jones, manager of the sta,pn, in an affidavit, stated that s ie general news reports broad ist were obtained from the Radio -|,ews Association of New York 2 'associated with Trans-Radio 1 'ress Service, Inc.) by short wave. On this score the court stated lat the statements in the AP Sdavits that KVOS has in many oecific instances broadcast general and local news items claimed e; p belong to the news service, "are 1 jlear and convincing, and, when pnsidered in connection with the ,iss specific statements in defendnt's affidavits as to defendant's ources of general and local news 'nformation, compel the conclusion, nd the court so finds, that defend.nt has in its radio news broad.asts taken and 'pirated' local and ;eneral news dispatches in some pecific instances as charged by omplainant, but not until after uch news items were published nd distributed to the public in the ■egular public editions of the lewspapers of complainant's mem>ers." t Judge Bowen brought out that the AP did not assert any rights under a statute or the copyyright laws, and that the bill charged unfair competition and violation of its property rights in the news. In the argument, however, the court stated, AP counsel stressed its claim of unfair competition rather than its asserted property rights in the news reports. "Complainant," continues the opinion, "claims it has such property right in the news reports for at least 24 hours after first publication thereof in one of the newspapers of complainant's members, but that defendant has customarily broadcast the reports many hours before the expiration of such 24-hour period." Property Rights IN THIS connection, the court recited that the AP contention that this property right was upheld in the AP suit in South Dakota against KSOO, and that the South Dakota case, in turn, was upheld in the suit of the International News Service vs. the AP, tried in the Supreme Court and in which the 24-hour stipulation was laid down. Judge Bowen declared, however, that a "careful review" of the International News Service case "fails to disclose a statement by the Supreme Court to the effect that complainant in that case acquired or had an absolute property right as such in news gathered by it and supplied to its member newspapers for any time after distribution to the public, or indeed for any time whatever, either before or after such publication." He added that there seemed to be no room for question that the true construction of the rule of the majority in that case "is confined to the actual holding on the particular facts there involved and that the case turns on the point that the pirating news agency was guilty of unfair competition. * * *" Difference in Facts ON THE question of unfair competition, Judge Bowen held that the INS case was not controlling in the case at bar, "because the rule of that case is confined to the peculiar facts there involved and they are unlike the facts here. In that case a majority of the court held there was unfair competition between plaintiff and defendant, Market With MONEY! Among the fifteen largest markets, Milwaukee rates — Home Ownership 3rd Automobile Ownership . 5th Radio Ownership 2nd Industrial Payrolls 6th Covered Thoroughly ONLY by WTMJ THE M | LWA U K E E JOURNAL STATION EDWARD PETRY & CO. both of whom were news agencies engaged for profit in gathering and distributing news reports to their respect contract members. In the case at bar, the defendant is not in any way pirating the news reports furnished by the complainant for the purpose of selling them or distributing them for profit to radio news broadcasters or other news publishers. "The fact that insofar as disseminating news is concerned the defendant radio station may be performing a service similar to that of member newspapers of the complainant, does not necessarily of itself constitute the defendant a competitor even of a member newspaper of the complainant, because the member newspaper disseminates news for profit through sale of newspapers, while the defendant radio station receives no compensation for disseminating news to the public but does so free of charge therefor. * * * Advertising Angles "A NEWSPAPER publisher gets paid not only for the advertising space in his newspaper purchased by advertisers, but also for each particular copy of his newspaper distributed to the public. The defendant radio station is not, therefore, directly in competition with complainant's member newspapers in respect to the business of disseminating news for profit. The mere fact that the defendant radio station competes for business profit with complainant's member newspapers in the advertising field does not make of the defendant and such newspaper competitors for business profits in the dissemination of news." PROPERLY ALLOCATED INTERVIEWS MEAN GREATER ACCURACY FOR THE SOBY YARDSTICK of AUDIENCE VALUE For the past three years we have directed our efforts toward everincreasing accuracy in our audience analysis method. We were not convinced of the accuracy of "random calls. Consequently, we made a number of test audience surveys, taking "allocated" calls versus "random" calls. The results convinced us that the proper allocation of telephone calls according to "radio home" population is essential to greater accuracy in the final results. Write for more information and prices on "station" or "spot" audience surveys. • BENJAMIN SOBY AND ASSOCIATES 1023 WALLACE AVENUE Wilkinsburg, Pittsburgh, Pa. 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