The Norwegian freelance journalist Lars Aarønæs has reached a settlement with the publishing house Hjemmet Mortensen AS after one of their periodicals made his copy available on the Internet without first making an agreement. Under the terms of the settlement the journalist received NOK 136,000.

In the spring of 1996, the Kampanje magazine, which is owned by Hjemmet Mortensen AS decided that all articles published in the paper editions of the magazine should be made available on the Internet. During the period 1989 to 1996, the freelance journalist Lars Aarønæs had written a total of 90 articles for the magazine and his agreement was not obtained before the articles appeared on the net.

Kampanje's net service was established in April 1995 but was first launched in November 1995. At this point, only a few of Aarønæs' articles were available on the net. The service was open for all those with access to the Internet. The complete editorial file was launched in August 1996. This service was only accessible to Kampanje magazine's 350 subscribers.

The Norwegian Union of Journalists took up this case in November 1996 after Aarønæs had tried to reach an agreement with Kampanje, but without success. It was not until the Norwegian Union of Journalists filed a complaint with the Court of Conciliation against Hjemmet Mortensen AS that they showed any interest in settling the dispute. The amount offered was only NOK 25,000 and in May 1997 the Norwegian Union of Journalists decided to summon Hjemmet Mortensen AS to appear before Oslo City Court. Lars Aarønæs' articles were first removed from the Internet in May 1997, i.e. after legal action had been taken against the publishers.

Hjemmet Mortensen AS admitted at an early stage that articles could not be made available on the Internet without the agreement of the journalist. No agreement had been made governing re-use of the articles supplied to Kampanje. Aarønæs therefore had sole rights as author to decide whether the articles could be placed on the Internet. The speciality principle in copyright law also weighed against the articles being published on the Internet when no agreement had been made.

The disagreement between the parties was on how compensation for the unauthorized use was to be fixed. There is no case law to refer to in this field. Aarønæs maintained that Hjemmet Mortensen should pay compensation equivalent to the price originally paid for his articles. The claim was therefore NOK 680,000.

Hjemmet Mortensen argued that it was unreasonable to pay the same price for articles which had previously been published and only reissued on the Internet. Moreover statistically, the articles had been rarely visited. It was also held that in general fees are fixed at a low level in agreements concerning re-use on the Internet. Normally such fees will be between 10% and 50% of the original fee. Hjemmet Mortensen also referred to the fact that the Norwegian Union of Journalists had concluded a tariff agreement with their employee members giving them NOK 1,000 in annual remuneration for re-use of copy on the Internet.

Negotiations took place during case preparation resulting in an out-of-court settlement. Under the terms of this settlement, Hjemmet Mortensen AS are to pay compensation in the amount of NOK 136,000 as final settlement of any claims Aarønæs could submit in connection with Kampanje making his articles available on the Internet without authorization. The articles have been taken off the Internet and the parties stress that the compensation amount is part of an out-of-court settlement and cannot be invoked as a principle in other connections.