Two companies can license the same story and be allowed to do very different things with it. The differences come down to a handful of rights. Knowing them by name makes a licence quicker to read and easier to negotiate.
Display rights
Display is the right to show the content to your audience. A licence will say where: a public site, a subscriber product, a mobile app, a screen in an office. It may limit display to headlines and a summary, or allow full text. Check whether images are included, because they are often licensed separately from the words.
Archive rights
Archive rights govern how long a story may remain available. Some licences allow a rolling window, such as thirty or ninety days. Others allow a permanent archive while the agreement is active. Search features depend on this. There is little point building a five-year search if the licence allows three months.
Internal sharing
Forwarding articles to colleagues, including them in a briefing, or posting them on an intranet is a separate right. Organizations often assume it comes with a subscription. It frequently does not, and publishers do check.
Redistribution
Redistribution is the right to pass content on to third parties, for example inside a product that your customers then show to their own users. It is the broadest right and the most carefully controlled. Expect named-customer reporting and per-recipient fees.
Duties that come with the rights
- Attribution: show the source name, and the link if required, exactly as specified.
- Integrity: do not edit the text or headline unless the licence allows it.
- Corrections: replace a story promptly when the publisher sends a corrected version.
- Withdrawals: remove a story when you are told to, everywhere it is stored.
