Channel Nine loses IceTV action

In Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd v IceTV Pty Ltd [2007] FCA 1172 Nine's action for breach of copyright against Ice TV for reproducing its TV schedules in electronic form was dismissed by the Federal Court.

The Court held that Nine owned the copyright to its program guide but dismissed Nine's claim on the basis that IceTV "does not reproduce a substantial part of" Nine's guide.

Nine provides its schedules to "Aggregators" who  integrate the schedule with that of other free to air stations and edit and add to the information for inclusion in the various public guides and determine the arrangement of that information. There was no claim by the Aggregators that Ice infringed their copyright.

Ice contended that it did not copy the aggregated guides but created its templates by watching the broadcast programs and writing down the title of the programs and the days and times at which they were shown.

The Judge found that Ice did take "slivers of time and title information each day from the Aggregated Guides. ... Ice does not reproduce a substantial part of the Weekly Schedule in so doing."

Justice Bennett agreed with IceTV that its "electronic program guide" was compiled independently and ordered Nine to pay IceTV's costs.

see Fairfax Digital's report