NYTimes.com Goes Live with Rightslink

Posted on April 11, 2001

Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), a licensing agent for text reproduction rights, and The New York Times Company announced that Rightslink, CCC's digital rights management solution, is live on The New York Times' website.

The New York Times is using Rightslink to instantly license use of copyrighted articles-- including delivery of the content itself -- over the Web directly to customers. By clicking on selected business articles and then clicking on the 'Reprints and Permissions' link to the right, customers can obtain instant permission to republish articles from New York Times-branded content for use in newsletters, textbooks, magazines and reports. They can also order formatted reprints for promotional, informational or other uses.

``CCC's Rightslink is already in our business section and will be expanded to other sections shortly,'' said Scott Meyer, vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com. ``By making copyright compliance and content delivery more convenient than ever for our customers, we're also growing new revenue opportunities for our business.''

CCC's digital rights management solution delivers content electronically to the end-user's desktop, or fulfills reprint requests automatically by routing them for printing and delivery to the user. Customers can pay online by credit card or request an invoice. CCC's main competitor, iCopyright.com, offers a similar service to publishers. Both CCC and iCopyright.com are hoping that instant licensing of online content will develop into a revenue stream for publishers.

``Copyright Clearance Center has been licensing reuse of copyrighted content on behalf of The New York Times and thousands of other rightsholders for many years,'' said Joseph S. Alen, president of CCC. ``The use of Rightslink to package licensing and content into a simple transaction at the point of content, on the publisher's website, is a natural extension of the value proposition CCC has been providing rightsholders for over 20 years.''