Hoser v Georges (No 2)

In Hoser v Georges (No 2), the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia dealt with a dispute concerning the moral rights of an author under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The plaintiff, Hoser, sought to enforce his moral right of integrity of authorship against the defendants, Georges, over statements they made about his literary works. The court was tasked with determining whether the defendants' statements constituted an act in relation to the plaintiff's works and, if so, whether these statements amounted to derogatory treatment that infringed upon the plaintiff's moral rights.

The legal issues at the heart of the case revolved around the interpretation and application of sections 195AI and 195AJ of the Copyright Act. Specifically, the court needed to decide if the defendants' statements about the contents of the plaintiff's works and about the plaintiff himself constituted acts done in relation to the works, as defined by section 195AJ(b). If so, the court had to determine whether these acts constituted derogatory treatment of the works under section 195AI(2), thus infringing the plaintiff's right of integrity of authorship.

The court concluded that the defendants' statements did not constitute acts done in relation to the plaintiff's works. The court reasoned that section 195AI is concerned with acts done to or with a work, and the defendants' statements were merely expressions of opinion and did not involve any physical or direct action on the works themselves. Therefore, the plaintiff did not have reasonable prospects of successfully prosecuting the proceeding based on the alleged infringement of his moral rights. Consequently, the court dismissed the proceeding.

In light of the dismissal, the court ordered that the proceeding be dismissed pursuant to section 143(2) of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 (Cth). The plaintiff was also ordered to pay the respondents' costs. Additionally, the respondents were granted liberty to apply within 35 days for an order setting their costs in accordance with Schedule 2 to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (General Federal Law) Rules 2021 (Cth), or alternatively, for an order pursuant to rule 22.09 of the General Federal Law Rules that their costs be set or assessed otherwise than in accordance with Schedule 2.