RecordTV Pte Ltd v MediaCorp TV Singapore Pte Ltd and others
Judge | Chan Sek Keong CJ |
Judgment Date | 01 December 2010 |
Neutral Citation | [2010] SGCA 43 |
Court | Court of Three Judges (Singapore) |
Docket Number | Civil Appeal No 6 of 2010 |
Subject Matter | Infringement,Groundless threat,Words and Phrases,Copyright |
Hearing Date | 18 May 2010 |
Published date | 06 December 2010 |
Defendant Counsel | Davinder Singh SC, Dedar Singh Gill, Paul Teo Kwan Soon and Roe Yun Song (Drew & Napier LLC) |
Plaintiff Counsel | Alban Kang Choon Hwee, Koh Chia Ling and Ang Kai Hsiang (ATMD Bird & Bird LLP) |
This is an appeal by the appellant, RecordTV Pte Ltd (“RecordTV”), against the decision of a High Court judge (“the Judge”), who dismissed its claim against the respondents, MediaCorp TV Singapore Pte Ltd, MediaCorp TV12 Singapore Pte Ltd, MediaCorp News Pte Ltd and MediaCorp Studios Pte Ltd (collectively referred to as “MediaCorp”), for making groundless threats to bring legal proceedings for copyright infringement. The Judge also held,
This appeal raises an important policy issue as to how the courts should interpret copyright legislation in the light of technological advances which have clear legitimate and beneficial uses for the public, but which may be circumscribed or stymied by expansive claims of existing copyright owners. Bearing in mind that the law strives to encourage both creativity and innovation for the common good, in a case such as the present one, how should the courts strike a just and fair balance between the interests of all affected stakeholders,
RecordTV was the owner of an Internet-based service that allowed its registered users (referred to hereafter as either “Registered Users” or a “Registered User”, as the context requires) to request the recording of MediaCorp’s free-to-air broadcasts in Singapore. The broadcasts were recorded on RecordTV’s iDVR, which functioned just like a traditional digital video recorder (“DVR”),
MediaCorp is a state-owned group of commercial media companies in Singapore. It is the nation’s largest media broadcaster and provider, and broadcasts a variety of free-to-air television programmes in Singapore. For present purposes, MediaCorp is also the copyright owner of the various free-to-air broadcasts and films particularised below (referred to hereafter as either the “MediaCorp shows” or a “MediaCorp show”, as the context requires), whose copyright RecordTV is alleged to have infringed:
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RecordTV’s iDVR service operated as follows. Members of the public had to first register with RecordTV (
Reverting to RecordTV’s iDVR service, upon a successful registration with RecordTV and a subsequent log-in using a unique username and password, a Registered User was able to access a database which listed the shows available for recording using RecordTV’s iDVR, namely, the MediaCorp shows scheduled for broadcast over the coming week on Channel 5, Channel 8 or Channel NewsAsia (this database was compiled by RecordTV using information from the public websites of the respective channels). The Registered User would select from this database the MediaCorp shows which he wanted to have recorded and enter the selected shows into a playlist. After making his selection, the Registered User would issue a request for RecordTV’s iDVR to record the desired shows. This request would be updated in the iDVR’s internal database. A control programme in RecordTV’s recording computers, which were located away from the Registered User’s computer, would continuously monitor the iDVR’s internal database to check whether a request had been made. If the control programme detected that a Registered User had made a request for a particular MediaCorp show to be recorded, it would instruct the iDVR to record the said show.
RecordTV operated several television tuners (one per television channel) from which its iDVR captured and recorded those MediaCorp shows which Registered Users had requested to be recorded. Depending on the mode of storage in which the iDVR operated (which could be the “Single Instance Storage” (“SIS”) mode, the “Mixed” mode or the “Multiple Copy” mode (see
It is important to note that each recording of a MediaCorp show could only be retrieved by the Registered User who had requested that that particular show be recorded. This recording would be “streamed” to the Registered User, rather than “downloaded” onto his computer (as to the difference between “streaming” and “downloading”, see the Judgment at [97]–[98]; see also
RecordTV’s iDVR had three different phases of operation during its lifespan. When it was first launched in July 2007, it operated in the SIS mode. This mode of file storage involved the storage in RecordTV’s recording computers of one copy of the time-shifted recording of a MediaCorp show, regardless of the number of recording requests made for that show. By July 2008, RecordTV’s iDVR was operating in the “Mixed” mode for Channels 5 and 8, and in the “Multiple Copy” mode for Channel NewsAsia. The “Mixed” mode was a hybrid mode of storage whereby multiple copies of the recording of a MediaCorp show were created based on the number of Registered Users who had requested the recording of that show. If, however, system resources were insufficient, then only one copy of the recording would be made. As for the “Multiple Copy” mode, it involved the making and storage of multiple copies of the recording of the same MediaCorp show, such that that show could be played back from different files. Finally, sometime around August to September 2008, RecordTV’s iDVR was reconfigured to operate solely in the “Multiple Copy” mode for all channels. The one similarity among all three phases was that RecordTV would not make a recording of a MediaCorp show if it did not receive a recording request for that show. It should be noted that the third phase of operation of RecordTV’s iDVR (
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