Moreover Folds, Settles With AP

Signaling that maybe nobody is willing to let this linking-and-snippet business go to court, Moreover and parent company VeriSign have settled a lawsuit filed by the Associated Press for undisclosed terms.

By the tone of the press release, though, those terms must be favorable to the plaintiff. "AP is pleased to have resolved the litigation in an amicable manner and appreciates VeriSign and Moreover's efforts to resolve AP's concerns," said AP Vice President and General Counsel Srinandan Kasi.

Fair use has been the general (if vague) law of Internetland, with Google and slews of other news aggregation sites relying on the fair use principles to allow them to link to and display short snippets of news content. In regard to content other than news—photos, for example—courts have upheld fair use doctrine for search engines indexing and displaying links, snippets, and thumbnails.

Murdok publisher