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Copyright Decision In Australia Vindicates 3d-Party EPG Provider

Posted by timothy on from the facts-and-figures dept.

angry tapir writes "In a landmark decision, the High Court of Australia has ruled that Electronic Program Guide (EPG) vendor IceTV has not violated the copyright of Channel 9 by reproducing programming information in its third-party EPG. This case has been running since May 2006, when the Nine Network alleged that IceTV's electronic program guide infringed the copyright of Channel 9's television schedule."

4 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is great news for us Australians who use the IceTV service - its adds TIVO like features to PVR recorders.
    Now Channel Nine might actually play nice with them

  2. It was ridiculous in the first place! by AbRASiON · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO WATCH THEIR STATION!

    Are they so scared their programming is that bad, that they don't want people to know what they have on?
    It's one of the most stupid things a company has ever done, it's not like sharing the content, it's a bloody listing.

    Someone needs to slap channel 9 on the upside of the head, wtf were they thinking?

  3. Re:suddenbreakoutofcommonsense Justified by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Laws in your country might be different, but you cannot copyright a phonebook here either. You can, though, copyright the organisation (the "database" if you want), but not the data itself, unless you created the data yourself, too.

    You didn't create the person's name, phone number or address. But you created the database entry, and that entry is yours. Not the data within, though. So anyone could take your phonebook and use it as a source for his own database of a phone book.

    If your head hurts already, don't ever touch our copyright law. That's one of its easier parts.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:This is great by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Channel 9 already gets around any automatic recording by grossly misrepresenting their timetable. Anyone who uses it will have a large section of advertising (or the previous program) at the beginning of their recording, and the end will be chopped off. The difference in timing is usually around 12 minutes for primetime, but I have known it stretch to over 20 minutes on occasion.