Australian Court Says Creating Your Own TV Program Listing Is Copyright Infringement
from the fine,-then-we-won't-watch-tv dept
William Patry points us to a court ruling in Australia that says, in effect, that television program guides are copyrighted material and anyone producing their own program guide needs to license that information from the TV networks. On this, it would appear that Australian law differs from US law, which doesn't consider factual information by itself to be copyrightable. However, the Australian ruling basically found that program guide information isn't quite "factual" information, but "created." Thus the copyright is on the creative decisions the TV network execs made in choosing when to show each show (yes, they're apparently serious about this). If that sounds a bit extreme (and a bit ridiculous), you're not the only one who thinks so. While the court didn't directly address the question, from this ruling it certainly sounds like you could be found to have violated copyright if you just sat in front of your TV and wrote down what played when -- and then predicted a similar schedule going forward.
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Filed Under: australia, compilations, copyright, facts, tv guides
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We are doomed.
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Hm
How about the guy who planted the tree that gets drawn a lot by art students, how about the guy who put the Hollywood sign up there, would not the film studios need a license to show it in their shows ?
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Re: Hm
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Re: Hm
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Also ominous is that it isn't simply unreachable, which could indicate a problem with their net connection or power. Maybe the bad storms they had in the states recently, or something. But it is reachable, it just returns incorrect responses, which indicates that the problem is some internal misconfiguration rather than a hardware failure or external problem or regional disaster.
Which means that someone went into their server room in the middle of the weekend, f&@!ed something up while trying to do who-knows-what, and since then nobody (even on the regular 9-5 shift) has cared enough to fix it. (If they had, it would be working by now, since a software misconfiguration, or even a drive failure somewhere, would require at worst that they swap in a replacement part and restore Friday night's backup tapes, which should take hours at most. And webmaster@ bouncing is also a very bad sign.)
That nobody has cared enough to fix it implies that it's dead, dead, dead. :(
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What is with the Aussies???
Has anyone else noticed the reliably constant stream of stupid internet related laws, lawmaker statements and legal decisions that come from down under? What is it about the bottom half of the Commonwealth that has so much trouble understanding and coping with the Information Age?
Could it be too much beer, ya-think?
"The Land of Wonder...The Land Down Under."
Ummm...I 'Wonder' what nonsense I'll be hearing next outta these Fosters swilling kangaroo punchers.
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Creating Your Own TV Program Listing Is Copyright Infringement
IceTV then sent and created their own guide not using the descriptions provided by the networks to newspapers and other publications who are permitted to publish the TV guide. They basically did this out of fear that if people can easily record TV shows then ads will get skipped, they will lose revenue, etc, etc.
Heard it before? It's all the same arguments that were touted when home VCRs were introduced.
If IceTV can't publish a show guide then the usefulness and ease of use of PVRs (and this includes things like EyeTV and other computer-linked vido recorders) becomes incredibly limited.
What's next for us, the government making ISPs content filter the internet before it reaches the home to "protect the children"? Oh wait, that's in the pipeline too!
Please, please, please get me out of here & take me to a country where the people in charge (or at least those who advise them) have a clue about technology!
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Anywayz, I'm a MythTV user and rely on public, community driven program guides to keep my system up to date. I think this whole point is completely ridiculous not only for the most obvious reasons, but also because as of January this year, the TV networks started transmitting 7 days of program guides with their digital TV streams.
I think the problem here is that IceTV was a paying service and the point they are trying to make is it's a bit silly to allow them to charge for something that they are not creating themselves. Still, it's a stupid ruling.
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I got $2 to start a GeneralEmergency fund. Anyone else in?
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Now...I simply must hear more about the time you were punched by a Kangaroo.
??
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Still it is the way that the Guide is structured remains copyright protected.
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Visiting Austrailia
I know I am taking this to an extreme, but honestly, it wouldn't surprise me these days from that country.
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Re: Visiting Austrailia
"Be alert , Not alarmed" was the government motto.
Yes, we are weird but we are nice, really.
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Same Thing in the UK 20 Years Ago
I can't remember the exact outcome, but I believe that RT and TVT backed down or compromised without actually relying on a court decision. I do remember that public opinion was decidedly with Time Out.
I Googled for this and only came up with a passing mention here, but maybe there is something deeper in the results:
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Conference/Technology_Poverty_AP/adb12.pdf
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Tie me down sport.
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No bite ear
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Yeah!
Todd D.
http://news.surfwax.com/clothing/files/Adrian_fashion.html
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