I wouldn't call it getting busted. The court held that they were allowed to copy the data, overturning the sweat of the brow doctrine:

The Court ruled that information contained in Rural's phone directory was not copyrightable, and that therefore no infringement existed.

Prior to this case, the substance of copyright in United States law followed the sweat of the brow doctrine, which gave copyright to anyone who invested significant amount of time and energy into their work. At trial and appeal level the courts followed this doctrine, siding with Rural.