Dutch broadcasters sue newspaper for publishing TV guide

Last week, three Dutch broadcasting associations brought interim injunction proceedings against newspaper De Telegraaf for publishing a TV guide with broadcasting data for the whole week. The TV guide comes free with the weekend edition of the newspaper. The broadcasting associations  want De Telegraaf to stop publishing the free TV guide and went to the court. 

Previously, De Telegraaf and the broadcasting associations had reached an agreement, which allowed De Telegraaf to publish broadcasting data daily. Nonetheless, De Telegraaf went too far by publishing the broadcasting data for the whole week in a separate TV guide, according to the broadcasting associations.

De Telegraaf is not worried about the court proceedings and is convinced that  the publishing of the free TV guide is legal. According to De Telegraaf, the broadcasting data are freely available and therefore, no compensation is required. The opinion of De Telegraaf is based on a recent ruling of the European Court of Justice, which said that a database can only be protected by copyright if it contains an original intellectual creation of its author. The case of the ECJ concerned football schedules. However, it is still unclear if broadcasting data are protected by copyright or database rights and how compensation is regulated. Hopefully, this proceedings will clarify these topics. 

Read more about database protection on FutureOfCopyrigt.com: 

• Canada Post claims copyright on postal codes
• ECJ clarifies law on database protection of football schedule

Source: RTL