OK! sues Heat for printing quotes from interview with Britney's sister

Jamie Lynn Spears gave an interview revealing her pregnancy to the US edition of OK! magazine, an interview which publisher Northern and Shell claims pushed sales to record levels.

OK! claims that Heat then took quotes from its interview without acknowledgment and used them as a basis for its own article in the magazine. Northern and Shell said that it has begun proceedings in the High Court against Heat owner Emap.

"We go to all possible lengths within the law to protect these exclusives and safeguard the interests of the celebrities and of our own readers," said Paul Ashford, group editorial director at Northern and Shell.

"OK! magazine has established its reputation in the UK, the USA and throughout the world by the relationship of trust it builds with celebrities," he said.

A spokeswoman for Heat owner Emap said that the company had no comment on the action, and could not even confirm that the action had been taken.

A copyright law expert said that Heat could have protected itself just by crediting any quotes it may have taken to OK!.

"It is an infringement of copyright to reproduce a substantial part of a copyright work, such as an interview, without the consent of the owner," said Iain Connor of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM. "Whilst there is an exception that allows news reporting, the copyright owner must be credited. Failure to give credit takes you outside the fair dealing exception."

Connor said that the fair dealing exception means that a whole interview could be used without the consent of the original publisher as long as credit is given, and as long as all the parts taken are newsworthy.

OK! was recently involved in a landmark case over its exclusive right to publish photographs of the wedding of Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas in 2000. Rival Hello! published photographs taken covertly by an attendee and OK! sued the magazine.

That case went all the way to the House of Lords, which ruled in favour of OK! in a decision that it is thought will curb some of the activities of paparazzi photographers.

Connor said, though, that any case between OK! and Heat will be quite different. "OK! is perfectly within its rights to take action against Heat for reproducing parts of the Spears interview but this won't be on the same basis that it sued Hello in respect of the Douglas wedding," he said. "This is a pure copyright case not breach of 'exclusive' confidence."

The House of Lords eventually ruled that all the attendees at the wedding were subject to an obligation of confidence to the magazine and the £1 million deal for exclusive rights to the photos.

The publication of photos taken without the magazine's permission was therefore a breach of confidence, it ruled.