Channel Nine lost a legal battle in the High Court yesterday to digital program guide supplier IceTV, with the court ruling the network’s copyright rules were not infringed upon.
The ruling has ended a three-year court battle that started when Nine claimed that IceTV infringed on its copyright by compiling an independent guide, using data Nine sought to protect.
The court ruled that there was “little originality” in the programming data, and that Nine’s claims to copyright originality were found more in program selection and presentation. Coupled with a digital video recorder, IceTV can allow users to skip advertisements.
A spokesperson for Nine told The Age that “the landscape has changed in technology and, in particular, electronic program guides … The judgement has practically no impact and Nine is unruffled”.
IceTV has said that the ruling will allow it to develop itself as a rival to existing networks, who in the three years since the trial started have begun delivering programming content via digital signals.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
