The Independent is hoping that a deal with Seattle-based content-tracking and licensing firm iCopyright will help protect content, raise revenue and stop people “taking the piss” by stealing stories without attribution. The Indy has joined the likes of Reuters and AP in signing a deal with iCopyright after two years of talks to make sure that people across the globe don’t misuse its hard-won stories and features. On the first day of using the technology the paper says it negotiated 4,000 licences, some with ad-support. Independent digital MD Bill Swanson told paidContent.co.uk it was equally about protecting content and making money: “It’s a way to be seen to protect copyright as much as we can but also monetise our content as much as we can at the same time. At the moment if there is any copyright infringement there is no way of knowing – it’s just about being up front about what the copyright implications are.” Is it going to be an important revenue stream? “One can only hope”. Release.

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—Copyright: “We are taking more of a stand if people are abusing us,” says Swanson. “And that coupled with our support of ACAP really just strengthens our position. If it is 4,000 people printing out the article it starts adding up”. He says it’s fine to re-print or re-post anything for personal use but warns that “if we find they have been taking the piss then we will use just about everything we can”, especially in the case of bloggers or websites that republish content and surround it with online ads. Independent News and Media and its COO Gavin O’Reilly have long been champions of copyright protection: it was the first UK publisher to sign up to the ACAP protocol and IMN CEO Sir Tony O’Reilly once spoke of an industry-wide initiative to stop Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) indexing stories altogether.

—Web activity: There is a flurry of activity on Independent.co.uk at the moment: the site, which had 6.62 million unique users for August according to ABCe, has just signed a deal to have its own section on news prediction site Hubdub and this week it has begun trialling a deal with Yahoo-owned price comparison site Kelkoo to monetise its web traffic. The paper is upping its SEO game to boost traffic and content-wise, Swanson says to expect “one or two releases” in the coming months to “improve user experience”.