The fact that the Internet broke the stranglehold Big Media once held on information is often viewed as a positive development in the U.S. and other countries.

This trend has been slower to develop in Japan, a place where the powers-that-be are notoriously stingy with information of any type. Government agencies are not required to submit details of their spending. Inquiries to a company or government office for information are often met with suspicion or downright stonewalling.

Recently, the courts here handed down a ruling that indicated Japan may not be ready to jump onto the news-is-free bandwagon of the Internet Age just yet.

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper was awarded compensation from a small Internet firm that used its news headlines without permission, in a first-of-a-kind ruling in the country.

The Intellectual Property High Court, a special branch court of the Tokyo High Court, ordered Digital Alliance Corp. to pay about 237,700 yen (2,000 dollars) to the Yomiuri.

The court said the use of news headlines by Digital Alliance was illegal. It is the first ruling in Japan giving protection to news headlines.

Though the judge agreed that headlines are a legal gray area and did not required Digital Alliance to remove the headlines, Yomiuri declared in a statement following the verdict, “This ruling will be a guiding principle for Internet news services in the future.”