Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 984

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 984 Citation: Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 984

Parties: FAIRFAX MEDIA PUBLICATIONS PTY LTD (ACN 003 357 720) v REED INTERNATIONAL BOOKS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD (ACN 001 002 357) T/A LEXIS-NEXIS

File number: NSD 1306 of 2007

Judge: BENNETT J

Date of judgment: 7 September 2010

Catchwords: COPYRIGHT – respondent reproduces headlines and creates abstracts of articles in the applicant's newspaper – whether reproduction of headlines constitutes copyright infringement – whether copyright subsists in individual newspaper headlines, in an article with its headline, in the compilation of all the articles and headlines in a newspaper edition and in the compilation of the edition as a whole – literary work – copyright protection for titles – use of headline as citation to article – policy considerations – originality – authorship – whether presumption of originality for anonymous works available – whether work of joint authorship - whether the headlines constitute a substantial part of each compilation – whether the work of writing headlines is part of the work of compilation – whether fair dealing for the purpose of or associated with reporting news ESTOPPEL - whether applicant estopped from asserting copyright infringement by respondent – applicant has known for many years that headlines of the applicant's newspaper are reproduced in the abstracting service – applicant had subscribed to and resupplied the abstracting service – whether respondent relied on an assumption that the applicant will not assert copyright infringement by reproduction by headlines – whether applicant created or encouraged the assumption – detriment – whether unconscionable to depart from assumption