IceTV Pty Ltd & Anor v Nine Network Australia Pty Limited

IceTV Pty Ltd and Anor (appellants) appealed to the High Court of Australia against a decision of the Full Federal Court which had found in favour of Nine Network Australia Pty Limited (respondent). The dispute concerned allegations of copyright infringement arising from the respondent's use of program schedule data provided by the appellants. The appellants claimed that the respondent had copied their copyright material, specifically the program schedule data, without authorisation.

The High Court was required to determine whether the program schedule data, as presented by IceTV, constituted a literary work or a dramatic work in which copyright subsisted. Further, the court had to consider whether Nine Network's use of this data, in creating its own electronic program guide, amounted to an infringement of any copyright held by IceTV. The central question was whether the compilation of program information, including titles, descriptions, and broadcast times, was sufficiently original to attract copyright protection and, if so, whether Nine Network's actions constituted unlawful copying.

The High Court, by majority, held that the program schedule data, as compiled and presented by IceTV, did not possess the requisite originality to be protected as a literary work under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The court reasoned that the information contained within the schedules was largely factual and descriptive, and the arrangement and expression of this information did not demonstrate sufficient intellectual creativity or labour to meet the threshold for originality. While acknowledging that compilations can attract copyright, the court found that the degree of skill and labour involved in IceTV's schedules was not sufficient to elevate them to the status of a copyrightable work. Consequently, Nine Network's use of the data did not constitute copyright infringement.