According to Timeslive, the court found Moneyweb did not prove four of the articles were original works and two of the articles did not qualify for copyright protection.

The only article Acting Judge Daniel Berger found that Fin24 had infringed upon's Moneyweb's copyright was a piece titled Amplats CEO cites JSE rules.

The court ordered Moneyweb to pay 70 % of Fin24's costs, including the costs of two counsel.

Burger said the damages amount to be paid by Fin24 on the one piece would stand over for determination in a damages inquiry.

Moneyweb, owned by Caxton & CTP Publishers, took Media24 to court over the seven reports being aggregated by Fin24.

In a statement following the ruling, Media24 chief executive Esmaré Weideman said the ruling vindicated "our conviction that our conduct was fair and lawful. The fact that the court ordered Moneyweb to pay 70% of Media24's costs speaks for itself."

Media24 noted the court's ruling that Fin24 had infringed copyright on the one article.

“We accept the court's decision and pride ourselves on ethical journalistic practise. Overall, this ruling is a huge victory for Fin24. It proves that aggregation and original reporting both have a place in modern journalism.”

In an report on Moneyweb following the ruling, Moneyweb editor Ryk van Niekerk said while the ruling that only one out of the seven articles had its copyright infringed was disappointing, “one article is one article too many”.

He said the court vindicated Moneyweb's position that reports on news events are protected by copyright. 

“Fin24 contended that there is no copyright in reports about news events and if this was found to be true, it would have been devastating for journalism,” Van Niekerk said.

Moneyweb will respond in greater detail once it had studied the judgment.