Time Warner v Channel 4 [1994] EMLR 1

• Film ‘Clockwork Orange’ was removed from British market at request of its director in 1970s.

• Channel 4 wished to make documentary on it, so purchased a copy from a Parisian store rather than ask the owner of copyright for permission to make documentary. Amount of film excerpted in documentary was around 10%.

• Claimant sued. Defendant relied on defence of fair dealing for purposes of review/criticism.

Held

• Defendant was not in breach of copyright.

• This despite fact that 10% of the film (a large proportion) had been copied

  • This because quantity of review/criticism was even greater, and of a very high quality

• If work is already published, fact that it was obtained in underhand manner irrelevant to question of whether Defendant’s dealing was ‘fair’.

  • Rather here, ‘fairness ‘ depends primarily upon how work is treated by Defendant