In the absence of an apology from Barry, the Nine Network said it would sue. Barry's original script was careless in parts and weakened by his taste for overwritten theatrical mugging and bluster. He expressed himself in terms for which no judge or jury would have much difficulty finding a reasonable and commonly held meaning. Lawyers for both networks may already be arguing the facts and precedents to the 10th decimal place, but that's little help to the viewing public. When a local program transmits a segment presented by one of its staff reporters then most viewers will make a sensible assumption that the material is original both in conception and execution.
Newspapers face a similar problem every day.
After some notable omissions were featured on Media Watch during the early 1990s, our Princes of Print are these days careful to credit news agencies when external copy has been folded into compendium reports filed by a staff journalist. But questions of attribution are rarely that simple in television. The ease of videotape copying and editing means that emblematic images are re-used so often that provenance quickly becomes obscured and then forgotten. In truth, no great harm is done when those irritatingly familiar stock scenes of foreign ships unloading containers are used for the umpteenth time to illustrate the trade deficit. It will not be surprising if 60 Minutes adopts a more forthright policy in this area.