Australia Says No to Copyright for Headlines

The Australian Federal Court has decided that there is no copyright in newspaper headlines. In Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd. v. Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd, newspaper publisher Fairfax lost its claim of copyright infringement against Reed, which used Fairfax’s headlines for its article reporting and synopsis service. Fairfax claimed that Reed had infringed its copyright in its headlines and the compilation and arrangement of its articles. Reed argued that the use of the articles’ headlines was merely for the purpose of reporting and accordingly did not constitute copyright infringement under the defence of fair dealing. On September 7, 2010, the Federal Court held that there was no copyright in the headlines of articles and therefore no infringement. The headlines were not seen as a form of literary work protected by Australian copyright law. If protected, the public would be prevented from referring to articles by their titles. Regarding Fairfax’s articles arrangement or compilation, the Court found that Reed did “not take a substantial part of such a work”. Bennett J. also commented that Reed’s publication of article synopses constituted fair dealing. Fairfax plans to appeal the decision. For more information please see the following link: http://tinyurl.com/37ur95t For a link to case: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2010/984.html Summary by: Cindy Vergara