IceTV Pty Limited v Nine Network Australia Pty Limited

The High Court of Australia considered an appeal by IceTV Pty Limited and IceTV Holdings (together "Ice") against a decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court. The dispute concerned allegations by Nine Network Australia Pty Limited ("Nine") that Ice had infringed copyright in Nine's weekly television programme schedules. Nine contended that Ice had reproduced a substantial part of these schedules, which were admitted to be original literary works, to create its own electronic programme guide.

The central legal issues before the High Court were whether the time and title information extracted from Nine's weekly programme schedules constituted a "substantial part" of those compilations for the purposes of copyright infringement, and whether the skill and labour involved in creating the schedules were relevant to this determination. The Court also considered the nature of originality in compilations and the distinction between information and expression in copyright law.

The High Court, allowing the appeal, reasoned that the reproduction of the time and title information by Ice did not amount to the reproduction of a substantial part of Nine's weekly schedules. The Court clarified that while originality in compilations can arise from the skill and labour of selection and arrangement, the focus for infringement must be on the qualitative and quantitative significance of the reproduced material in relation to the original work. The Court found that the extracted information, while derived from Nine's schedules, did not represent a substantial taking of the copyright work itself.

Consequently, the High Court set aside the orders of the Full Court of the Federal Court and reinstated the decision of the primary judge, which had found no infringement. The appeal to the Full Court was dismissed with costs.