The family of Bondi Junction stabbing victim Dawn Singleton has agreed on the eve of a two-day trial to court orders ending their copyright dispute against the Nine Network and The Sydney Morning Herald by entering judgment in favour of the media outlets.
The copyright claim centred on Nine’s use of two videos and five photos from Singleton’s public social media accounts. The litigation was expected to involve a fight over the scope of a fair dealing exception in copyright laws, which allows images and video to be used for “the reporting of news”.
Bondi Junction Westfield stabbing victim Dawn Singleton.Credit: Andre Tukin
Had the NSW Supreme Court case proceeded to a hearing, the decision would have had implications for all Australian media outlets.
Singleton, 25, was among six people fatally stabbed by mentally ill man Joel Cauchi at Bondi Junction Westfield on April 13, 2024. Cauchi was shot dead by police. An inquest into the seven deaths started in Sydney on April 28 and ran for five weeks.
Singleton’s fiance, NSW police officer Ashley Wildey, and her mother, Julie Singleton, filed the lawsuit in April before Nine’s 60 Minutes aired an interview with her father, former adman John Singleton.
Their claim was later expanded to include the publishing companies behind Nine-owned newspapers including the Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review.
Shortly before the trial, which was expected to run for two days from Tuesday, the parties agreed to orders entering judgment in favour of the Nine entities. The Supreme Court made the orders on Monday afternoon. The parties will bear their own legal costs.
Wildey and Julie Singleton had asked the court to make a declaration that the Nine outlets had infringed their copyright in the videos and photos, an order permanently restraining them from using the films and images, and damages.
In a written defence filed in court, the Nine entities admitted that “there exists a practice within the Australian media of sourcing photos … and videos … from publicly available social media pages and using those photos and videos for the purpose of, or associated with, the reporting of news”.
However, they said that “such a practice is lawful and permissible”, subject to the facts in any particular case.
They also said in the defence that in any future reporting they would “make reasonable endeavours” to only use a photo of Dawn approved by Wildey and Singleton if they wished. The media outlets noted that no such request was made before the commencement of the copyright infringement proceedings.
The outlets’ lawyers would have argued during any trial that the fair dealing exception applied, as well as examining the licences Dawn Singleton had granted to social media companies when she uploaded the images.
Modern news reporting was “textual, visual and aural”, the defence said.
“Visual reporting encompasses the use of photographs and videos in and around text or spoken words.”
John Singleton was not a party to the copyright lawsuit. He told 60 Minutes he did not support the mandatory Bondi Junction inquest, but his public comments exposed a schism in the family.
Dawn’s sister, Daisy Singleton, said in Instagram comments that the family had “begged him not to do this interview”.
Under the NSW Coroners Act, an inquest is required to be held when a person dies as a result of a homicide or a police operation. The inquest was supported by Wildey and Julie Singleton.
In a statement, a Nine spokesman said: “Nine welcomes the NSW Supreme Court judgment in favour of Nine confirming that the photos, which were widely published by multiple media outlets throughout Australia and overseas after being placed on social media, were appropriately used by Nine.”
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