The Guardian | Politico
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled Wednesday that the news aggregator Meltwater does not violate copyright laws by storing a cached page on app users’ mobile devices and laptops. The court sent the case to the European Court of Justice to ensure that subsequent rulings are consistent across European jurisdictions. (more...)

Journalism in the Americas
"Ms." arrived in 1980. "Illegal immigrant" entered in 2004 (and left this year). The hyphen in "e-mail" left the building in March 2011.

Zach Dyer catalogs these and other changes to the AP Stylebook since 1980 in a nifty interactive timeline. The news collective's process for changing style is "fairly democratic," he reports after a conversation with AP Deputy Standards Editor David Minthorn:

For a more controversial term, like “illegal immigrant,” Minthorn said the organization considered feedback from its editors, some of who cover immigration, and took a vote. “It wasn’t unanimous but there was a strong majority,” he observed.

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Two days after changing its style on the term "illegal immigrant," the Associated Press issued a Stylebook update that's significant but in a much quieter way:

underway One word in all uses.

OK, it's a big deal mostly to copy editors, many of whom have spent a good part of their professional lives jamming a space into "underway."

Here's the old listing:

under way Two words in virtually all uses: The project is under way. The naval maneuvers are under way. One word only when used as an adjective before a noun in a nautical sense: an underway flotilla.

I surveyed a few copy-editing icons on whether the AP switch would occasion one at their organizations: (more...)

Associated Press | Politico
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled in favor of the Associated Press in its lawsuit against the clipping service Meltwater News, the AP's Larry Neumeister reported Wednesday.

"AP has shown through undisputed evidence that Meltwater's copying is not protected by the fair use doctrine," Cote writes in her opinion.

Investigating and writing about newsworthy events is an expensive undertaking and enforcement of the copyright laws permits AP to earn the revenue that underwrites that work. Permitting Meltwater to take the fruit of AP's labor for its own profit, without compensating AP, injures AP's ability to perform this essential function of democracy.

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Associated Press
The Associated Press has issued a helpful style guide for what promises to be an eventful March in the Roman Catholic Church. For example: Mass is "celebrated, not said." The word "pontiff" is "not a formal title and always spelled lowercase."

The Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Benedict will not revert to his birth name in retirement. Instead call him "Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI," "Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus" or "former Pope Benedict XVI" or "Benedict XVI, the former pope."

Some entries come from the AP Stylebook; others "were suggested by AP’s religion writers in Rome and New York and based on decades of AP coverage of the Roman Catholic Church and papal successions," the guide says.

Previously: Pope’s Twitter account on hold, not shutting down | How Vatican blogger Rocco Palmo is getting ready to cover the conclave for the next Pope | Pope Benedict XVI resigns: What you need to know

Associated Press headlines will greet diners alongside their checks at the Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, D.C., a press release says.

"The idea is to see if news updates will serve as a customer amenity and leverage thousands of existing restaurant printers as a new worldwide printing press," says the release.

The service will strive to deliver "events that broke during the diner’s meal," an improvement over diners checking smartphones and not "contributing to table conversation and interaction."

Another potential benefit: If you go to dinner with a newshound -- and the sample Old Ebbitt bill on the press release appears to have been racked up by someone who really knows how to live -- they may pick up the bill.

Earlier this week, the AP announced a deal with Samsung to broadcast sponsored tweets through its account during the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show.

Associated Press
Electronics giant Samsung will provide content for tweets sent through AP's account during the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show electronics show in Las Vegas, the press cooperative says in a press release.

The AP's flagship Twitter account has more than 1.5 million followers. The tweets will be labeled "SPONSORED TWEETS" and the content for those tweets will be provided by Samsung and handled by staff outside the AP newsroom.

The AP developed internal guidelines in recent months so that it may build new business models in the new media landscape without compromising its newsroom values and principles.

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