A copyright licensing agency has told a domestic violence charity that it requires a paid licence to link to newspaper
articles from its website. In an email sent to Women’s Aid, Newspaper Licensing Ireland said that “a licence is required
to link directly to an online article even without uploading any of the content directly onto your own website”. The email
was sent in response to questions from the charity, which says it does not retain newspaper clippings or scan articles,
but does post links to stories of relevance published on news websites. Dublin legal firm McGarr Solicitors have written
to Newspaper Licensing Ireland on behalf of the charity seeking further clarification, and published the letter on their website.
The solicitors website says they have not charged any fee to write on behalf of Women’s Aid, but provides a link for any
readers who wish to make a donation to the charity. Newspaper Licensing Ireland was set up in 2002 “to enable companies
to photocopy and/or scan information from all of Ireland’s national newspapers” and is registered in the Register of Copyright
Licensing Bodies in accordance with the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000.

“Seeing as we got a letter from a solicitor I’m not going to comment on a letter,” said Frank Cullen, chief executive officer
of Newspaper Licensing Ireland. “I’ve given it to our solicitor to prepare a reply and we will reply.”

“We understand Women’s Aid is making copies of newspaper content and that copying requires a licence.”

Mr Cullen was unable to say similar letters had been sent to other charities. A spokesperson for Women’s Aid said the
charity had not yet received a reply to the letter sent by their solicitors. The organisation hoped that by making the letter
public it would highlight the issue to other charities. Newspaper Licensing Ireland operations manager Owen Cullen said
the organisation licenses commercial newspaper content in Ireland. He said there was a difference of opinion on whether
hyperlinks to web addresses were copyrights, and although there were no cases in Ireland, there had been cases

“I don’t think its appropriate to comment on a specific case as its ongoing.”