Tom Curley to keynote international publishers conference on protection and licensing of content rights

NEW YORK -- Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley will be the keynote speaker at a Nov. 29 conference in New York in which a new protocol is unveiled that helps protect the intellectual property rights of those making content available on the Web.

ACAP, which stands for Automated Content Access Protocol, is a new, nonproprietary open standard and an initiative of the World Association of Newspapers, the European Publishers Council and the International Publishers Association. It will be showcased at the conference following a 12-month pilot project between a group of publishers and search engines. Starting in December, publishers of content on the Web will be encouraged to implement ACAP and to express their individual access and use policies in a language that search engine robots and similar automated tools can read and understand.

“This conference will demonstrate, beyond all doubt, the need for ACAP, and the critical importance for the global publishing industry to embrace new digital tools to protect its future,” said WAN President Gavin O’Reilly.

“The ACAP project is part of a portfolio of strategic intellectual property initiatives undertaken by AP to promote licensed use of its content worldwide,” said Srinandan Kasi, AP vice president and general counsel. “ACAP will facilitate flexible online licensing of the news cooperative’s content across content types, formats and geographies in a manner that complements AP’s content tracking and intellectual property enforcement efforts.”

In August, AP was among the organizations represented in the first settlement by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) in its Corporate Content Anti-Piracy Program. SIIA reached a $300,000 agreement to settle copyright infringement claims against Knowledge Networks Inc. Most recently, AP filed suit against Moreover Technologies Inc. and VeriSign Inc., asking a U.S. court to stop the two companies from misappropriating the AP’s proprietary news reports and infringing on the news organization’s copyrights and trademarks.

“This project has received unprecedented industry support and commitment,” said ACAP Project Manager Mark Bide of Rightscom Ltd. “Key players in the publishing and online industry have been quick to appreciate the need for ACAP and have responded by lending their corporate support and technical expertise. Our focus now is to communicate to the widest possible audience how ACAP can be implemented.”

The ACAP conference will be held at the New York headquarters of AP. For more information, go to www.the-acap.org

Media wishing to attend should contact Jack Stokes, at AP Corporate Communications.