In a big win for TV viewers around the country, independent EPG provider IceTV has won their eight month battle against Channel Nine. This morning Justice Annabelle Bennett ruled in favour of IceTV that their EPG does not infringe Nine’s copyright in their television schedule.
The entire Nine Network case was dismissed, with IceTV declared an “independent compilation” built wholly by their own means.
IceTV General Manager Matt Kossatz was suitably excited, and offered some thoughts in a press release:
Today’s decision is not only a win for a small Aussie owned media company, but more importantly a win for Aussie consumers. We will continue to expand our service, offering consumers more choice and greater freedom and we look forward to playing an integral part in driving the uptake of digital TV in Australia.
We thank our subscribers and IceTV Partners for their support through this “˜David & Goliath’ battle and we look forward to moving forward, implementing new and exciting features and continuing to strengthen the IceTV brand.
Big congrats to the IceTV crew. They’re delivering a much needed service to the Australian market right now, made more necessary for the general reticance of our networks to give viewers what they want – an open, standard EPG!
The Justice’s summary findings can be seen here (PDF). [IceTV]