Volume II

Issue : 19: October 7, 2004

• Ontario Superior Court Examines Organization and Commercial Activities under PIPEDA
• Australian Court Finds Copyright Infringement in Data Mining of .UK WHOIS Database
• Court Strikes Down Anti bootlegging Statute
• U.S. Appeals Courts Finds Websites not Places of Public accommodation Under Disability Legislation
• Ontario Court affirms Privilege Extends to Electronic File References in Pleadings
• U.S. District Court Strikes Down Statutory Amendments Made by U.S. Patriot Act
• Recent Decisions of Privacy Commissioner Review Practices of Satellite Television Provider and Contest Sponsor
• California Court Finds Misuse of Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• Ontario Court of Appeal Releases its Decision in Robertson Case Holding Database Inclusion Constituted Copyright Infringement

Home > Volume II > Issue 19: October 7, 2004 > Ontario Court of Appeal Releases its Decision in Robertson Case Holding Database Inclusion Constituted Copyright Infringement

Ontario Court of Appeal Releases its Decision in Robertson Case Holding Database Inclusion Constituted Copyright Infringement

On October 6, 2004, the Court of Appeal for Ontario released it decision in the Robertson v. Thompson case. The court upheld the trial court's ruling that a newspaper infringed the copyright of a freelance writer by reproducing her articles electronically and including them in electronic databases, where such rights were not explicitly granted at the time of original publication. The court found that in order to fall within the newspaper's collective work copyright (which was the only right granted at the time of publication), the reproduced database must have constituted the newspaper, or any substantial part thereof in any material form whatever. The court concluded that a database is not a newspaper and that what the defendant newspaper reproduced did not have "the qualitative aspects of a substantial part of its newspaper".

For a copy of the decision, visit:

http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/decisions/2004/october/C38148.htm