Everyone knows the White Pages and the Yellow Pages. It's
where our fingers do the walking. Telstra's phone directories
have been a significant part of its business for a very long
time.
It's understandable that Telstra went all the way to the
High Court to protect its rights in its phone directories. It was
big news when the High Court refused Telstra's special leave
application last week. The case looked at whether copyright
subsisted in the phone directories, and as a consequence whether
Telstra could stop people reproducing them. It didn't and they
couldn't. The decision is a blow for any business that deals
with computer generated compilations.
Copyright subsists in 'original works'. By
'work' we're talking about music, artwork, films,
writing, performances and software. By 'original' we're
talking about something that's distinct and that's required
the application of some independent intellectual effort to make it.
In this case the issue was whether the
