The District Court of Amsterdam ruled that Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf is prohibited from publishing a weekly TV guide without the Dutch broadcasters having granted it permission to do so. According to the Court, the Dutch legislature has specifically laid down in the law that programme details can only be published with the broadcasters' permission. A court is bound by this specific prohibition on the basis of the principle of legal certainty. The fact that recent EU case law has caused a political stir which may lead to an amendment of the law does not alter this, as a court cannot run ahead of "political decision-making".1
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf released a weekly TV listing as a supplement to two of its Saturday editions in June and announced its intention to continue to do so for five weeks. The Dutch broadcasters subsequently brought preliminary relief proceedings against De Telegraaf in order to stop it from publishing their programme details.
The Court ruled that even though these programme details are not covered by copyright protection, they do fall under the "protection of writings" laid down in Article 10(1) of the Copyright Act and constitute a database within the meaning of the Database Directive. De Telegraaf argued that Article 10(1) of the Copyright Act was contrary to the Dataco ruling of the European Court of Justice, according to which the Database Directive precludes national legislation which grants databases copyright protection under conditions which differ from those set out in in the Directive.2 Even though the Court agreed with this argument, it considered itself precluded from interpreting the national provision in the light of the wording and the purpose of the Directive, as this would result in a contra legem interpretation of national law. Furthermore, the fact that the impact of the Dataco ruling on the Copyright Act is currently under review by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science prevents a court from "running ahead of any potential amendment of the law". As a result, De Telegraaf is precluded from publishing weekly TV listings until the law is amended accordingly.
Footnotes
1. District Court of Amsterdam, 13 June 2012, LJN: BW8334.
2. Case C-604/10 of 1 March 2012.
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