See this page:
If the citation column does not include a hyperlink, then copyright restrictions prevent BAILII from publishing the judgment (missing cases may be available on other commercial/paywalled sites).
And so the titular question: can the decision of a court be copyrighted, and if so, by whom and on what basis?
The court is part of the trifecta of government - it's part of the Judicative. The government can not have copyright in its works: 17 USC 105 declares such papers to be without copyright protection. This law is also the foundation of the public access to government documents.
(a)In General.— Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government,
Beyond that, the Copyright office vehemently refuses that a registrable copyright in such document would exist, even for any non-federal law or judgement according to their policy. As the first arbiter to what is copyrightable, their policy states, citing Surpreme Court cases:
As a matter of longstanding public policy, the U.S. Copyright Office will not register a government edict that has been issued by any state, local, or territorial government, including legislative enactments, judicial decisions, administrative rulings, public ordinances, or similar types of official legal materials. Likewise, the Office will not register a government edict issued by any foreign government or any translation prepared by a government employee acting within the course of his or her official duties. See Banks v. Manchester, 128 U.S. 244, 253 (1888) (“there has always been a judicial consensus, from the time of the decision in the case of Wheaton v. Peters, 8 Pet. 591, that no copyright could under the statutes passed by Congress, be secured in the products of the labor done by judicial officers in the discharge of their judicial duties”); Howell v. Miller, 91 F. 129, 137 (6th Cir. 1898) (Harlan, J.) (“no one can obtain the exclusive right to publish the laws of a state in a book prepared by him”).
If anyone has copyrights in Germany, it would be the author, so the Judge or panel of judges. However, they are explicitly disclaimed from having any copyright protection, to encourage dissemination of judgments under UrhG §5 (1) & (2) - just like most other government documents.
(1) Acts, statutory instruments, official decrees and official notices, as well as decisions and official head notes of decisions do not enjoy copyright protection.
(2) The same applies to other official texts published in the official interest for general information purposes, subject to the proviso that the provisions concerning the prohibition of alteration and the acknowledgement of source in section 62 (1) to (3) and section 63 (1) and (2) apply accordingly.
As the Bundesverwaltungsgericht decided on this in part with BVerwG, 26.02.1997 - 6 C 3.96, which solved that any judgment is by default to be published and without copyright.
Generally the UK judgments available from the Courts and Tribunals Judicary website and BAILII are asserted to be Crown copyright and licensed for use under the Open Government Licence.
§ 5 par. b) of the copyright law 185/2015 Z. z. says explicitely:
Za predmet autorského práva sa nepovažuje
... b) text právneho predpisu, úradné rozhodnutie alebo súdne rozhodnutie ... bez ohľadu na to, či spĺňajú podmienky podľa § 3 ods. 1
Google translation:
It is not considered the subject of copyright
... b) the text of a legal regulation, an official decision or a court decision ... regardless of whether they meet the conditions according to § 3 par. 1
§ 3 par. 1 defines what can be copyrighted (basically a unique product of creative activity)
And I think other EU countries will have similar exceptions.
Copyright in judicial decisions continues to reside in the State pursuant to the Copyright in Judicial Decisions Notice 1995 (NSW).
There is a fairly broad default licence subject to some conditions related to accuracy, that such copies are not official, and relating to the use of the State’s Coat of Arms.
Not in brazil. Law 9.610/98 (our copyright law):
Art. 8º Não são objeto de proteção como direitos autorais de que trata esta Lei:
[...]
IV - os textos de tratados ou convenções, leis, decretos, regulamentos, decisões judiciais e demais atos oficiais;
roughly translates to:
Article 8º The following are not protected as copyrights covered by this Law:
[...]
IV - the texts of treaties or conventions, laws, decrees, regulations, court decisions and other official acts.
