FT gets tough on multiple log-ins
Jinfo Blog

7th February 2009

By Tim Buckley Owen

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Companies usually shy away from suing their own customers. But in deciding to take legal action in the US against the private equity firm Blackstone, for alleged multiple uses of its ft.com log-in, the Financial Times seems to believe that ‘a line has been crossed’. Intellectual property law specialist Kim Walker, of law firm Pinsent Masons, suggests in the firm’s Out-Law newsletter http://digbig.com/4yfnr that the FT may be taking such public action in order to send a message to other companies. He adds that ‘self-preservation’ may be behind publishers' unwillingness to take such action to date. But then the FT always has been different. When other business news providers such as the Wall Street Journal were moving steadily in the direction of free access back in 2007, the FT introduced a licensing agreement for use of its content http://www.vivavip.com/go/e612 including through aggregators. VIP magazine’s last ‘Big Three’ review in November http://web.vivavip.com/go/vip/60 reported the FT as being ‘upbeat’ about the success of its strategy. Its registered user base had already broken the 500,000 mark, digital revenues had been boosted and it had secured direct agreements with 350 corporate customers. But speaking exclusively to VIP last June http://web.vivavip.com/go/vip/55 Clare Hart of Dow Jones seemed dubious about the FT’s licensing move. ‘It remains to be seen’ was her response. LexisNexis’s Josh Bottomley http://web.vivavip.com/go/vip/57 suspects the company may have had no choice but to charge. ‘Advertising revenue alone is unlikely to support the network of journalists that it is maintaining, and therefore it needs to try and find a market price on a subscription basis for its content,’ he suggested. Now it seems the FT is upping the stakes again.

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