John Singleton’s family sues Nine over family snaps
The family of John Singleton’s late daughter is suing the Nine Network and the Sydney Morning Herald for copyright violation after they published and aired photos of Bondi Junction knife attack victim Dawn Singleton.
Singleton appeared on Nine’s 60 Minutes program on Sunday night, where he objected to an upcoming inquest into the Bondi Junction murders, in which his daughter and five other victims were killed.
During the show, Nine showed photos of Dawn Singleton which her fiance, NSW police officer Ashley Wildey, and her mother, Julie Singleton, say were used without permission. Monday’s Sydney Morning Herald also featured images of Dawn Singleton on its front page.
John Singleton is not involved in the lawsuit.
John Singleton on 60 Minutes (Nine)
The lawsuit, which was filed in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday ahead of the show airing, is seeking damages for copyright infringement, and an order “permanently restraining” the use of two specific images of Dawn Singleton, as well an order barring Nine from using any photographs from her social media accounts. The copyright in photographs is automatically held by the photographer, unless assigned elsewhere.
Sue Chrysanthou, acting for Singleton’s family, said in a preliminary hearing on Wednesday the copyright claim should be “pretty straightforward: someone owns the photo, someone uses it, and there’s either permission or there isn’t.”
She noted that “on the front page of the Herald on Monday, another of Mr Wildey’s images was taken without his consent.” The image was reprinted in a story of page 12 of the same paper. Chrysanthou also referred to “photographs that Nine Entertainment group has been using without our clients’ consent over the last year.”
Nine’s barrister Lyndelle Barnett denied it was a “straightforward and simple” copyright claim.
“My clients are very keen to be as respectful and sympathetic of the plaintiffs as we can be,” Barnett said. “But to the extent there’s going to be very broad brush claims over reporting of a very tragic event over the last year, we need to be able to fairly deal with that and respond to it.”
Barnett said Nine has a “good fair dealing” argument, and said there will be questions about “the circumstances in which those images made their way into the public domain, and whether there’s any argument of an implied licence.”
The plaintiffs will be submitting an updated claim on Friday, adding new defendants, with the hearing scheduled for May 2.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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