OGH: Copyright or editorial secrecy?
In the present case, the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof, OGH) was called upon to balance the request for information - about the producer of the copyright infringing material of the right holder, in order to protect his ownership right - with the constitutional public interest in preserving the editorial secrecy of the media publisher.
The plaintiff in the present case is a theatre company. It demanded from the defendant media publishers, among other things, information about who had made unauthorised film footage of one of its theatre performances, which was exploited in various unauthorised ways in the defendant's media.
The OGH held that an interpretation of the relevant norms of the Copyright Act (Urheberrechtsgesetz, UrhG) and the Media Act (Mediengesetz, MedienG) in conformity with constitutional and EU law only excludes an invocation of editorial secrecy if the public interest of the informing medium does not prevail in the individual case.
In contrast to the previous instances, the OGH, after a comprehensive weighing of interests, came to the conclusion that the public interest of the media, anchored in the constitution, in not having to disclose information acquired through journalism, outweighed this interest. Therefore, the theatre's request for information was rejected, even though its copyrights had been violated.
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