BRA pushing forward on Downtown vendors

Boston Redevelopment Authority officials will meet with Downtown Crossing pushcart operator Craig Caplan on Tuesday to discuss the future of the outdoor program after Mayor Thomas M. Menino intervened to prevent the vendors' ouster at the end of this month.

"This meeting is part of the ongoing conversation that is happening to determine the next phase of the Downtown Crossing pushcart program," BRA spokeswoman Melina Schuler said. "Talking and listening to the needs of pushcart operators is a crucial part of moving the pushcart program in Downtown Crossing forward."

Last week, Menino gave 26 pushcart operators in the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District a 60-day reprieve after the BID informed them they would be required to shut down at the end of this month. Vendors' permits now have been extended at least through the end of May.

The vendors, who have been hawking food and merchandise since the late 1970s, cried foul after receiving notice that the BID planned to implement a temporary, scaled-down pushcart program this spring for which they'd have to reapply — without guarantees of being accepted. The vendors argue that they've remained in business during Downtown Crossing's hard times and should be included in its revitalization.

The BID's long-term plan, which the BRA supported, was to upgrade and professionalize the vending program for 2014, with new merchandise and more permanent kiosks.

"We have communicated to all the vendors that their Public Works permits have been extended for another 60 days," BID president Rosemarie Sansone said by email. "The BID is continuing to work closely with the BRA and other city agencies in developing a plan for the coming year. In speaking to many of the vendors, we have let them know we are addressing this issue as thoughtfully and quickly as possible."

Caplan, who has forwarded a letter to Menino along with 1,000-plus names on a petition that supports the vendors, did not respond to Herald inquiries.

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It’s hip to be square in Cambridge

This architect-designed home may be the most unique in Cambridge, as much a work of art as a place to live.

The single-family detached house at 19 Clifton St. sits on commonly held land behind an 1886-built home and is technically part of a two-unit condo association. Designed in 2006 by local architects Beat Schenk and Chaewon Kim, the dwelling consists of three stacked boxes set at angles, with an exterior of stained Okoume plywood, the kind normally used on yachts.

The home looks unusual from the outside, but the interior consists of well-thought-out rooms and a masterful use of space. The two-bedroom, free-standing townhouse is on the market for $579,000.

From the front of the house you don't see any windows, but there are windows on the far side and in back, and many of the rooms get decent light from skylights cut into the exposed roof corners.

The first floor of the house has a skylit living/dining area with a white Carrara marble floor. A plywood staircase set at an angle divides this room from a kitchen area with four skylights that features a bottom row of stainless steel cabinets topped by brown granite counters.

Up above is a row of frosted glass lift-up cabinets. Stainless-steel appliances include a new Bosch dishwasher, a General Electric refrigerator and an Amana gas stove with a stainless-steel hood that vents to the outside. There's an additional wall for more kitchen storage and gadgets.

A glass door leads out to a crushed stone back yard with trees that provides parking for two vehicles.

The home's second floor has a guest bedroom, set off with sliding plywood doors, with polished plywood floors and knotty pine walls with two skylights and a window. Adjacent is a full bathroom with a white ceramic sink and a tub/shower with Carrara marble walls. Also on this floor is a small home office area with a window and a built-in bookcase.

The third floor is a sunny master bedroom suite with a large oak-floor bedroom, two windows, a wide skylight and recessed lighting. In one corner of the room is a two-door custom wardrobe with built-in drawers and hanging rods.

An angled frosted-glass window shields the bedroom from a large en-suite master bathroom. This space features Carrara marble floors and walls and an open shower area. There's also an area for a stacked Kenmore washer/dryer.

The 150-square-foot finished basement, with a window, is outfitted as a family room. The home has a heat-pump-based multi-zoned central heating and air-conditioning system.

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Agriculture disputes threaten new US-EU talks

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama used Washington's grandest stage — the State of the Union speech — to announce negotiations with Europe aimed at creating the world's largest free trade agreement. Just weeks later, there are signs that old agriculture disputes could be deal-killers.

European Union leaders don't want the negotiations to include discussions on their restrictions on genetically modified crops and other regulations that keep U.S. farm products out of Europe. But Obama says it's hard to imagine an agreement that doesn't address those issues. Powerful U.S. agricultural lobbies will do their best to make sure Congress rejects any pact that fails to address the restrictions.

"Any free trade agreement that doesn't cover agriculture is in trouble," said Cathleen Enright, executive vice president at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which promotes biotechnology, including genetically modified products.

That would threaten the dream of a behemoth free trade deal between the world's two largest trading partners that together account for more than half of the world economy. It would lower tariffs and remove other trade barriers for most industries. Some analysts say the deal could boost each economy by more than a half-percentage point annually and significantly lower the cost of goods and services for consumers.

Agricultural issues have long bedeviled attempts to expand free trade across the Atlantic and have led each side to file complaints against the other before the World Trade Organization, an arbitrator in trade disputes. While the U.S. protests EU restrictions, Europeans want the U.S. to reduce agricultural subsidies.

Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, have been a core part of the dispute. Agricultural scientists change the genetic makeup of agricultural products to improve their quality and boost production. In Europe, there is widespread public opposition to GMOs. The EU argues that the risks of altering the genetic pool are unknown. It has strict rules and imposes a heavy burden of proof before such crops can be grown or imported in the EU.

U.S. companies say that genetically modified products have been proved safe by scientific studies and are being excluded based on irrational fears. They accuse Europe of trying to help their own farmers by keeping out American products.

While they have little expectation that the EU would end the restrictions, they say it would be a victory if it clarified what it describes as opaque rules and also set timelines for considering products. Regulators now take what they call a precautionary approach, declining approval of products until they can be more certain of their safety.

But any move to water down the regulations could provoke a backlash in Europe.

"My reading of the mood in Europe around genetically modified crops is that it's extremely negative," said Paul DeGrauwe, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics. "It's going to be very difficult."

Indeed, the top EU trade negotiator, Commissioner Karel De Gucht, seemed to rule out a compromise in remarks this month: "A future deal will not change the existing legislation. Let me repeat: no change."

The U.S. and the EU have similarly intractable disagreements on what the two sides call sanitary issues in meats. U.S. poultry products are restricted in the EU because U.S. companies use chlorine to sanitize the meat. Pork is also restricted because U.S. farmers use a feed additive that makes pigs leaner. The two sides partially resolved disputes over U.S. beef after an agreement that U.S. farmers would restrict hormones in cows intended for the European market.

Some European officials say the agricultural differences should be discussed after a major trade deal is completed. This month, French President Francois Hollande called for excluding sensitive issues, including the sanitary standards, from the talks. In the past, France has been among the most adamant of the European countries about protecting agricultural interests.

Obama, in a talk with his export council this month, suggested this could be a deal-breaker.

"There are certain countries whose agricultural sector is very strong, who tended to block at critical junctures the kinds of broad-based trade agreements that would make it a good deal for us," he said. "If one of the areas where we've got the greatest comparative advantage is cordoned off from an overall trade deal, it's very hard to get something going."

Powerful U.S. agricultural groups could probably block a trade deal from winning approval in Congress. In interviews, representatives of many of these groups said they would oppose a deal that didn't address the regulatory differences.

Robert Thompson, an academic at Johns Hopkins University and a former economist for the Agriculture Department, said that the agricultural issues could easily upend the talks.

"I'm not expecting an agreement to emerge any time soon," he said. "I'm thinking years."

Of course, the rhetoric at the beginning of talks might not preclude compromise in the end. In his talk with the export council, Obama expressed optimism. He noted that austerity measures in response to the debt crisis in the EU have caused European countries to look to a free trade deal as a rare opportunity to boost the economy and improve competitiveness.

"I think they are hungrier for a deal than they have been in the past," he said.

___

Melvin reported from Brussels.

___

Follow Desmond Butler on Twitter at http://twitter.com/desmondbutler

Follow Don Melvin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Don_Melvin

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Troubled Calif. nuke plant seeks restart in summer

LOS ANGELES — As part of an effort to convince federal regulators that a nuclear reactor is safe to restart, the operator of the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant in California has disclosed it might push for a rewrite of the facility's operating rules.

Southern California Edison disclosed Friday it hopes the move could open the way for the Unit 2 reactor to be back in service by summer, when power demand typically soars in the region.

San Onofre has been shut down since January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of unusual damage to hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water.

Edison has been trying since October to convince the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it's safe to run Unit 2 at no more than 70 percent power. Company engineers believe the reduced level will limit vibration and friction that can cause excessive wear to tubing.

The tentative proposal amounts to Edison's third attempt to answer a thorny question raised by the NRC: Is the plant that hasn't produced electricity in more than a year capable of running at full power?

In earlier filings, Edison argued that its 70 percent restart target was, in effect, full power. It later submitted another analysis showing the reactor could run at 100 percent power, but the research found the risk of a tube break could reach unacceptable levels after 11 months.

The new proposal could essentially eliminate the debate over the full power threshold.

It calls for capping the plant's power output at 70 percent in the plant's technical operating rules, rather than the now-required 100 percent. It also argues that running the reactor at 70 percent capacity would pose no significant safety risk.

The proposal, known as a license amendment, came as a surprise since Edison has long argued such a revision was unnecessary to restart the plant.

If approved by federal regulators, the move could offer a potentially quicker way to a restart.

"We want to do every responsible thing we can do to get Unit 2 up and running safely before the summer heat hits our region," SCE President Ron Litzinger said in a statement.

Anti-nuclear activists who have opposed the restart accused Edison of trying to circumvent a thorough NRC review of machinery with a history of trouble.

According to Edison documents, members of the public can request a hearing on the amendment, but if NRC staff finds there is no significant hazard, the hearing can be held after the amendment is approved.

"Edison is more focused on making profits than it is in assuring the safety of millions of Southern Californians living near these reactors," Damon Moglen of the advocacy group Friends of the Earth said in a statement.

Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer on nuclear policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a critic of the nuclear power industry, said Edison was trying to delay a substantive review until "long after it has already restarted."

"If it is subsequently determined it wasn't safe to do so, it would be way too late," Hirsch said in a statement.

NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said the agency had not received the proposal from Edison.

The problems at San Onofre focus on its steam generators, which were installed in a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010.

Last year, federal regulators blamed heavy tube wear in the generators on a botched computer analysis that they said misjudged how water and steam would flow in the reactors, along with manufacturing problems.

The generators, which resemble massive steel fire hydrants, control heat in the reactors and operate somewhat like a car radiator. At San Onofre, each one stands 65 feet high and weighs 1.3 million pounds, with 9,727 U-shaped tubes inside that are each 0.75 inch in diameter.

Overall, NRC records show investigators found wear from friction and vibration in 15,000 places, in varying degrees, in 3,401 tubes inside the plant's four generators, two in each reactor.

The future of the heavily damaged Unit 3 reactor, where the radiation leak occurred after a tube break last year, is not clear. Edison has said that because of manufacturing differences, Unit 2's generators did not suffer the extent of deep tube wear witnessed in its sister.

Cracked and corroded generator tubing has vexed the nation's nuclear industry for years.

Decaying generator tubes helped push San Onofre's Unit 1 reactor into retirement in 1992, even though it was designed to run until 2004. The following year, the Trojan nuclear plant, near Portland, Ore., was shuttered because of microscopic cracks in steam generator tubes, cutting years off its expected lifespan.

San Onofre is owned by SCE, San Diego Gas & Electric and the city of Riverside.

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New England farmers look for creative ways to grow

DEERFIELD — Atlas Farm is growing more than just food — it is growing its business in ways that bring it more in touch with the everyday consumers it, and all New England farms, needs to survive.

Owner Gideon Porth, who has farmed 55 acres of land on the Connecticut River here since 2006, has bought 40 acres of cropland and a retail farm stand on Route 5 that he plans to open in May. The land and greenhouses on Route 5 will be vital, he said, since they are on the busiest road in his part of Franklin County, and because direct marketing is crucial not just for him, but for farmers all over New England.

"Our farm for the last five or six years has gotten more into wholesale production and sales," he said.

Wholesalers, those who buy produce and move it on to supermarkets, restaurants or to specialty retailers such as Whole Foods, have grown to about two-thirds of Porth's business, he said. Direct-to-consumer channels such as farm shares and farmers markets, as close as Northampton and as far away as Boston, are just a third of the business.

"But wholesale business is less stable," Porth said. "I feel like it is a lot less reliable in certain ways. You are competing in a global marketplace with fresh produce."

Global marketplace? In the organic vegetable business with its hippie ethos?

"Even in the organic world," Porth said. "There are big players in organics these days. If there is cheap organic lettuce coming out of California, we are subject to those pressures. And in California there are 5,000-acre lettuce farms."

He'll also bring the farm-share concept to the stand. Traditional farm shares allow people to pay upfront for a share of a farm's harvest. People get a box of vegetables every week or so.

The stand share will allow folks to pay up front for a selection of produce from the stand, Porth said.

That pressure to compete in a global marketplace with fresh, locally grown food is why more than 500 farmers and aspiring farmers from all six New England States gathered late last month in Sturbridge for the Harvest New England Agricultural Marketing Conference and Trade Show. Attendees ranged from farmers with hundreds of dairy cattle to a woman who raises vegetables on two vacant city lots in Providence, R.I.

It featured seminars and talks from people who have successfully marketed New England food both here and outside the region.

Massachusetts statistics show that there are 7,700 farms in the state. Most are small, averaging just 68 acres in size. Just 1,700 of those farms were big enough to require any hired labor. The total cash receipts from all 7,700 farms totaled $489 million in 2011.

Linda M. Paquette, of Hampden, bought a plot of land in two years ago. She calls it Scantic River Farm and hopes to grow herbs and vegetables. But so far most of her income comes from selling fresh eggs. A nurse by profession, she grew up in Springfield.

"I just always wanted to be a farmer," she said.

And there were plenty of vendors at the show willing to help out, ranging from Oesco, an orchard supply company in Conway with a selection of ladders and cider presses, to companies with seed trays. Then there was Jean McCarthy with North Woods Animal Treats of Keene, N.H., who was looking to wholesale doggy treats to farm store owners looking for impulse-buy items to stock near the cash register.

"All these people want to have retail operations," she said. "All these people might be looking for more things to sell at those retail operations. All the people who are interested in natural foods and would go to those farm retail operations might also be interested in natural pet treats. It is a natural fit."

The future of, and the possible undoing of, New England's farms is in the hands of those health-and-nature conscious customers, said Lorraine Stuart Merrill, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food.

"There is a great opportunity today to get people to eat fresh, local foods," she said. "It is not a fad. Once a person starts, they never go back."

But all those local customers also pose a threat. They like to buy houses, houses that take up land.

"This drives our high cost of land," she said during a roundtable forum with heads of the agriculture departments from all six New England States. "It is very expensive."

Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross said direct marketing can also bring culture clashes. He reminded the crowd of farmers that Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt., was faced with death threats last year after word got out on social media that the college was going to put down an aged working ox and serve the beast in the dining hall.

"This is the mentality you are dealing with," he said to the snickers of a knowing audience. "People think their food magically appears at the grocery store."

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Pay your best estimate to IRS

Tax season is upon us and the Herald's TaxSmart experts are here every Friday to help.

Today, Jonathan Gorski of Boston-based Edelstein & Co. discusses estimated tax payments to the Internal Revenue Service.

When am I required to make estimated tax payments to the IRS?

Individuals are required to make estimated tax payments to the IRS if the amount of tax they pay through withholding on wages and other payments will not adequately cover their tax liability for the year.

To avoid interest and penalties on an underpayment of tax, individuals, in the current year, are required to pay the lower of a) 90 percent of their current year tax; or b) 100 percent of the prior year tax.

If the taxpayer's adjusted gross income (AGI) for the prior year was more than $150,000 ($75,000 if the taxpayer's current year filing status is married filing separately), substitute 110 percent for 100 percent in the previous sentence.

Taxpayers typically make estimated tax payments on a quarterly basis. There are special rules for farmers and fishermen.

Planning tip: The IRS requires you to pay your taxes "as you go" throughout the year.

This is essentially the purposes of federal withholdings as they are treated as payments made evenly throughout the year.

If you become aware that your withholdings and estimated tax payments aren't enough to cover your income tax liability and/or interest and penalties from an estimated tax underpayment for the year, speak to your tax advisor about remitting additional amounts of federal income taxes through withholdings.

Taxpayers are usually able to withhold extra amounts on their W-2 wages and required minimum distributions (RMD's) from their retirement plans.

Email your tax questions to
bizsmart@bostonherald.com.

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Saudi buyer has new Ames for Hub mansion

Brokers wrapped up a blockbuster deal in Boston's Back Bay this week, finalizing the $14.5 million sale of the Ames-Webster mansion.

But it took three years and a hefty 37 percent price cut before a deep-pocketed Saudi businessman snapped up 306 Dartmouth St., one of the largest properties in the neighborhood.

The grand 26,000-square-foot property — with 50 rooms and 28 fireplaces and parking for up to six cars — hasn't been serving as a home but rather the offices of owner Raymond Property Co., a Hub real estate developer.

Originally listed in January 2010 for $23 million, then transferred to broker Campion & Co. in May 2011, the property had one price reduction to $18 million in November 2011.

306 Dartmouth was built as the home of Stephen Van Rensselaer Thayer and his wife, Alice. The wealthy Thayer was president of the Institute of 1770, Hasty Pudding Club and the Harvard Boat Club. But during construction, Thayer died at the age of 24. The home was bought by Charles Whitney, who sold it to prominent capitalist Frederick L. Ames in 1880.

Ames was born into great wealth in the 1830s. His great-grandfather founded the Ames Shovel Works and Ames invested heavily in railroads, becoming one of the principal owners of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Ames was determined to give this home his personal stamp, so he hired the architectural firm Sturgis and Brigham to extensively renovate the home and add a four-story, off-center tower — highly fashionable at the time.

The renovation also doubled the size the home's dining room, and added some of the finest museum-quality finishes including a skylight by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant. The French artist's work is housed in collections across the world including New York's Metropolitan Museum and Russia's Hermitage.

Campion's listing boasted that the mansion has an "embassy-worthy main floor with handsome carved wood and elegant detail at every turn. The main entry is covered in hand-applied tesserae glass mosaic and bordered in market. The great hall, with its elaborate staircase and tower, is 60 feet long.

According to real estate records, the buyer of the property was FAL Boston LLC, an entity managed by Fahad Al-Athel, a Saudi sheikh and head of FAL Holdings, a conglomerate based in Riyadh. FAL was represented by broker First Boston Realty.

It's unclear at this point what Al-Athel intends to do with the property — keep it as an office, convert it back to a single-family residence or divide it into condominiums. The property has duel permit status both commercial and residential.

One thing is certain: The powerful Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay will be watching closely.

Jennifer Athas is a licensed real estate broker. Follow her on Twitter @JenAthas.

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Take these jobs and love it

Patrick administration officials touted yesterday's jobs report, trumpeting that the state has returned to pre-recession employment levels, but the anemic 500 jobs created last month could be one indication that Massachusetts is not out of the woods yet, economists told the Herald.

Statistics for the Bay State show 18,900 jobs were created in January, compared to the 16,100 initially estimated.

Robert Nakosteen, a professor of economics and statistics at the UMass Amherst Isenberg School of Management, questioned the enormous gap between the January and February jobs numbers, which are gleaned from a survey of employers.

"If the numbers are accurate, it's a strange pattern," Nakosteen told the Herald. "It's certainly not part of any trend I can imagine."

There are now 3,318,500 people working in Massachusetts, compared to 3,304,300 in April 2008, when the recession took hold here, according to the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

Last month, the state unemployment rate ticked down to 6.5 percent from 6.7 percent in January. But initial estimates show that only 500 jobs were created in February, with five of 10 sectors losing jobs.

Both Nakosteen and Northeastern University economist Alan Clayton-Matthews said the Massachusetts economy has improved, but they forecast modest growth in the months ahead.

"I expect the state's economy to grow, but the growth to slow a bit because of the increase in the payroll tax and sequestration," Clayton-Matthews said, referring to the across-the-board cuts in federal spending that took effect this month.

Those cuts stand to have a greater impact here than in other states because Massachusetts receives a disproportionate amount of federal funding for research, health care and defense, Nakosteen said.

Frank Conte of the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University said the state should also be worried about the loss of 2,900 manufacturing jobs since February 2012.

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Walmart ad chops Stop & Shop

Walmart takes aim at competing local grocery stores in a new price-comparison advertising campaign, but a Somerville consumer advocate warns such ads are "inherently deceptive."

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant specifically targets Quincy-based Stop & Shop, showing how a shopper saved 14 percent at its Walpole store on items that she had purchased at a Stop & Shop in the same town.

Walmart launched the price-comparison campaign more than a year ago in Charlotte, N.C., and now is shooting commercials in some 50 markets across the country.

"We've had a lot of positive customer feedback, and we think that reflects how much customers appreciate learning about the price differences that exist in their communities and where they can find the most affordable prices," spokesman Bill Wertz said.

In a TV commercial shot Tuesday in Walpole, shopper "Grey" from Wrentham, who was compensated for her appearance, saved a combined 14.3 percent, or $14.75, on 24 items, ranging from Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese (8 oz.: $2.28 at Walmart and $3.04 at Stop & Shop) to Tide Clean Breeze Laundry Detergent (100 oz., 64 loads: $11.97 at Walmart and $14.49 at Stop & Shop). Some items were duplicates, but all except four were cheaper at Walmart, whose comparison excluded non-identical items and random-weight meat and produce on Grey's original Stop & Shop receipt.

But Somerville consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky urges shoppers to "take such comparisons with a grain of salt," noting they generally don't include a big enough sample of random items to mimic the average consumer's shopping experience.

"Do your own comparison for the items you buy," said Dworsky, a former director of consumer education at the state Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation and former state attorney general in consumer protection. "The best shopper is the 'specials' cherry picker. The one who buys the best sales items from a variety of stores is going to save the most. You cannot save the most just going to one store."

Walmart's campaign runs through Monday and includes print, radio, TV and online elements at www.walmart.com/boston.

A Stop & Shop spokeswoman said "we continually strive to bring our customers savings every day." The chain offers weekly specials, "Real Deals" items on sale for multiple weeks and a gas rewards program. It also recently has provided clip coupons in its circulars, according to spokeswoman Suzi Robinson.

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Judge: Aggregator of AP news can't have free ride

NEW YORK — A federal judge ordered an Internet news clipping service to stop reselling stories from The Associated Press, saying the ability of news organizations to perform an "essential function of democracy" was jeopardized when a company is allowed to "free ride" on the costly work of others.

Media observers say the ruling against Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc. and its Meltwater News Service, if upheld on appeal, could provide strong protection for the news industry as it struggles to survive in an Internet age.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote rejected Meltwater's claims that its use of Web stories drawn from a scan of 162,000 news websites from more than 190 countries was a fair use of copyright-protected material.

"Through its use of AP content and refusal to pay a licensing fee, Meltwater has obtained an unfair commercial advantage in the marketplace and directly harmed the creator of expressive content protected by the Copyright Act," Cote said.

She said in a ruling released to lawyers in the case Wednesday and to the public on Thursday that investigating and writing about newsworthy events worldwide was expensive, and copyright laws permits the AP to earn money to pay for it.

"Permitting Meltwater to take the fruit of AP's labor for its own profit, without compensating AP, injures AP's ability to perform this essential function of democracy," Cote wrote.

In a statement, Meltwater called the ruling "at odds with a variety of prior decisions that have paved the way for today's Internet," and said it would appeal.

The judge noted that commercial Internet news clipping services like Meltwater perform an important function for their customers, but that "does not outweigh the strong public interest in the enforcement of the copyright laws or justify allowing Meltwater to free ride on the costly news gathering and coverage work performed by other organizations. Moreover, permitting Meltwater to avoid paying licensing fees gives it an unwarranted advantage over its competitors who do pay licensing fees."

Meltwater is a 12-year-old electronic news clipping service that helps its clients monitor how they are covered in the press. In its lawsuit, the AP alleged that Meltwater News had been pilfering current and past material from the AP and other news providers without paying licensing fees.

George Freeman, a media law expert in private practice at Jenner & Bloch, called the ruling "one of the most solid and comprehensive that we've had in this very important field."

Richard Stim, a San Francisco attorney and author of "Getting Permission: How to License & Clear Copyrighted Materials Online & Off," said the ruling is special because most lawsuits against news aggregators get settled out of court.

"It gets a case out there that makes it easier to push people into licensing agreements," he said. "That's its ultimate business function. That's why everybody settles. They don't want a case out there that gives (content owners) the ammunition to say, 'Last time we did it, we won in court.' "

Even on appeal, the case will provide an important precedent, he said.

"The appeal may or may not go the same way," Stim added. "For people who follow these things, there'll finally be some judicial decisions."

Dwayne Buttler, an expert on copyright law and an endowed chair at the University of Louisville, said Cote's ruling was likely not the final word on the matter, since various appellate courts are in disagreement on the subject.

He also cautioned that works that are more factual than creative are given less protection by U.S. copyright law, which does not protect facts or ideas from copying.

"Newspapers are on the borderline of protectability," Buttler said.

The judge rejected Meltwater's claims that it operates like a search engine.

"Meltwater News is an expensive subscription service that markets itself as a news clipping service, not as a publicly available tool to improve access to content across the Internet," she said. "Instead of driving subscribers to third-party websites, Meltwater News acts as a substitute for news sites operated or licensed by AP."

Cote praised the operation of legitimate search engines.

"These interests are complementary. The Internet would be far poorer if it were bereft of the reporting done by news organizations and both are enhanced by the accessibility the Internet provides to news gathered and delivered by news organizations," Cote said.

She also defended the creativity necessary to write the first paragraph of a story, known as a "lede," saying Meltwater "misses the mark" when it argues that ledes are teasers and not summaries of news.

"If anything, the observation emphasizes the creativity and therefore protected expression involved with writing a lede and the skill required to tweak a reader's interest," Cote said.

Meltwater said it believes Cote misapplied the fair-use doctrine.

"Meltwater is especially troubled by the implications of this decision for other search engines and services that have long relied on the fair-use principles for which Meltwater is fighting," the company said.

Jorn Lyseggen, Meltwater's founder and chief executive, said the company was considering options and looked forward to appealing to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

AP CEO Gary Pruitt said the ruling was important for the AP and "others in the news business who work so hard to provide high-quality original news reports on which the public relies."

"For years, all of us have been hearing that if it is free on the Internet, it is free for the taking. The judge in this case just rejected that argument," he said.

Earlier this year, The New York Times, USA Today publisher Gannett Co. Inc., the McClatchy Co. and Advance Publications Inc. said in court papers that their businesses would be jeopardized if Meltwater was permitted to continue as it had.

The publishers said the ability of companies to distribute their content without paying licensing fees jeopardized their websites and other digital businesses that generate revenue through advertising, subscriptions and licensing fees.

One of Meltwater's competitors, BurrellesLuce, joined in a friend-of-the-court brief to say that it operates at a disadvantage because it pays to license content that Meltwater takes for free.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge supported Meltwater in a court brief.

Caroline H. Little, president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America in Arlington, Va., which joined an amicus brief on behalf of news companies, called the ruling a "monumental decision" that recognizes the value of newsgathering in society.

"The significant costs associated with global, national, regional and local newsgathering cannot be sustained if news organizations cannot protect the integrity of our publishing process," she said.

Meltwater was founded in 2001 in Oslo, Norway. According to the company's website, it has more than 800 employees working in 55 offices around the world.

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