BurrellesLuce Issues White Paper on Copyright Compliance To Help PR Practitioners Avoid Legal Woes in Sharing Content.

LIVINGSTON, N.J. -- Addressing an issue that is gaining urgency with the ongoing digitization of news content, BurrellesLuce has produced a white paper that aims to help PR practitioners reduce their risk of unwittingly violating copyright rules.

"Copyright Compliance: What Every Media Relations Professional Needs to Know" describes the basic concepts of copyright, and identifies simple steps a PR practitioner can take to abide by copyright law.

As the white paper states, "Digital content is easy to share but, unfortunately, even the most well-intentioned sharing can violate copyright law."

Publishers have always allowed media monitoring. With the decline of advertising revenue via print delivery, however, publishers have become less tied to that delivery channel and increasingly attuned to their role as content providers. Seeking other ways to monetize their content, they realize they must protect its distribution and use.

BurrellesLuce executive vice president Steve Shannon said that media relations professionals "want to be good citizens, but very few companies have a policy in place on how to use copyrighted material. Fortunately, BurrellesLuce is already working to keep clients on the right side of the law."

BurrellesLuce entered into its first use agreement in 1994. Today it has use agreements with thousands of publications, and continues to be the leader in copyright compliance in the media monitoring arena.

Dan Schaible, senior vice president-content management and a 28-year newspaper industry veteran who is overseeing the compliance program, explained that historically BurrellesLuce has purchased subscriptions and then identified and mailed relevant press clippings to clients--which is permitted under the right of first sale.

With BurrellesLuce now offering "timely digital delivery of content through our Web portal--a service that provides multiple benefits to our clients--we are required to have authorization from the publishers," Schaible said.

The use agreements with publishers call for BurrellesLuce to collect a small royalty for delivering the online and print stories it selects for clients. Royalties are paid entirely to publishers.

Noting that a series of innovative services recently launched by BurrellesLuce "is greatly enhancing the way our clients conduct and manage their public relations efforts," Shannon said the royalty fee "will enable clients to share copies of stories with users inside their organization, make them copyright-compliant, and give them peace of mind. What we've created is a turnkey copyright compliance program that allows clients to handle their PR work flow as they've always done."

"Copyright Compliance: What Every Media Relations Professional Needs to Know" is available free of charge from BurrellesLuce. To obtain the document, visit www.burrellesluce.com/copyright1 or call 866-260-0851.

Note: Although a very useful reference, the white paper is not meant to substitute for legal advice on specific copyright issues faced by a company.

About BurrellesLuce

BurrellesLuce helps communication professionals maximize their media relations results through a full range of planning, monitoring and measurement services. Besides delivering content, the company's online platform, called BurrellesLuce 2.0, enables clients to target and connect with journalists and bloggers, monitor the media for coverage, and measure and understand the impact of their outreach efforts. Founded in 1888 and headquartered in Livingston, New Jersey, BurrellesLuce has offices throughout the United States. www.burrellesluce.com