The NLA contributed to the death of a startup I worked for last year (in Edinburgh, although this is a UK-wide issue, Meltwater being an English company).
At that time, they wanted £5,000 to not sue us, at least that much again, per quarter, for access to a horrific and incomplete API, plus 12p per link per imprint.
Let me repeat that one again: they wanted 12p for every time someone saw a link to their website published by us.
And even THEN, the NLA don't actually speak for all newspapers in the UK - News International publications are not licensed, which means that there's no legal path to accessing their content.
It's complete nonsense. One friend suggested using bit.ly to shorten the URLs, paying the NLA their 12p once and letting them go after bit.ly (in America) for the rest.
At that time, they wanted £5,000 to not sue us, at least that much again, per quarter, for access to a horrific and incomplete API, plus 12p per link per imprint.
Let me repeat that one again: they wanted 12p for every time someone saw a link to their website published by us.
And even THEN, the NLA don't actually speak for all newspapers in the UK - News International publications are not licensed, which means that there's no legal path to accessing their content.
It's complete nonsense. One friend suggested using bit.ly to shorten the URLs, paying the NLA their 12p once and letting them go after bit.ly (in America) for the rest.