Copyright Protection Of Broadcast Program Schedules: Icetv Before The High Court

摘要

The appeal to the High Court from the decision of the Full Federal Court in Nine Network v IceTV raises important issues in relation to the subsistence and infringement of copyright in compilations that could be usefully clarified by the court. In particular, the case concerns the extent to which copyright in compilations that include a selection of facts may be infringed by copying the selection. This article identifies and analyses the unresolved issues before the court in the appeal. In doing so, it explains that reversing the decision of the Full Court would mean arriving at fundamentally different conclusions to those reached by the majority of the House of Lords in Ladbroke. The article also explains how denying protection to selections of factual material may undermine incentives for the production of such compilations, suggesting that any changes to the low originality threshold under Australian law should be left to the legislature, and not initiated by the courts.