+ Copyright and Satellite Transmission

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Copyright and Satellite Transmission

The applicants in TVBO Production Ltd -v- Australia Skynet Pty Ltd [2009] FCA 1132 made a television series in Hong Kong. The effect of the Copyright (International Protection) Regulations 1969 and Copyright Act 1968 (Cwth) was that copyright in the episodes included the exclusive right to communicate the episodes to the Australian public.

A Taiwan based corporation received an intercepted unauthorised transmission of one of the episodes and then re-transmitted it from Taiwan via satellite to subscribers of another paid television service in Australia.

Was this a communication by electronic transmission to the public in Australia and therefore a breach of copyright? It was held that it was and the recent technology neutral amendments to the Copyright Act have been vindicated.

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