The World Association of Newspapers issued a protocol aimed at developing software that will automatically notify search engines how newspaper material can be used.

The Automated Content Access Protocol, set for launch later this year, will set the terms under which search engines and news aggregators can legally use content, said Gavin O’Reilly, WAN president. “The system is intended to remove completely any rights conflicts between publishers and search engines,” he said.

WAN said it will run a pilot testing the protocol for a period of up to 12 months. Rightscom Ltd. will oversee the test.

Other partners in the project are the European Publishers Council, International Publishers Association and European Newspapers Association.

Attracting attention

How third parties reuse newspaper content is attracting renewed attention, especially after a Belgian court ruled earlier this month that Google infringed on newspapers’ copyright in that country.

In the United States, Google and The Associated Press last month struck an agreement under which the search engine said it would pay the agency for its use of AP news and pictures in conjunction with a forthcoming Google service.