Murdoch Threatens to Sue BBC Over Story Use if Necessary FT

News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch said in an interview for Sky News Australia on Monday that if BBC used stories -- if it infringed copyrights by stealing material from his company's publications around the world -- he might sue, according to the Financial Times.

Many news outlets refer to stories reported by other news outlets by citing the well-established doctrine of "fair use." The outlets don't pay the publications for reporting on the material they distribute under "fair use." Murdoch says he's prepared to challenge the "fair use" doctrine in court.

Murdoch also indicated that he would use legal means to prevent Google and other search engine news aggregators from taking his newspapers’ material, FT said.

-- Allison J. Waldman