Australia’s High Court has held that deletion orders, not a constructive trust over copyright, were the appropriate remedy for footage obtained through deliberate trespasses at an abattoir.
Farm Transparency International entered Game Meats’ premises to install hidden cameras and later returned to retrieve them. A trial judge awarded general and exemplary damages but declined to restrain publication, impose a copyright trust or order permanent deletion. The Full Federal Court later declared a constructive trust and added injunctions.
The High Court unanimously allowed Farm Transparency’s appeal in part. It accepted that damages alone did not adequately address the consequences of the trespasses. But it concluded that equity required only orders ensuring the organisation deleted or destroyed all images and copies obtained through the unlawful entries.
The judgment removes the constructive trust and the broader relief dependent on it while preserving the deletion remedy. It is a final High Court disposition of the appeal, not a finding that the original trespasses were lawful or that damages had been sufficient.
