High Court throws out internet piracy case

The High Court has thrown out an appeal by some of the world's biggest media companies to stop internet piracy after it excused Australian service provider iiNet from policing unauthorised downloads.

A group of 34 international and Australian companies, including industry heavyweights Warner Bros, Disney and the Seven Network, had alleged that iiNet had authorised the infringement of their copyright when its customers downloaded movies and television programs.

The movie companies had argued that iiNet had the power to prevent its customers from infringing copyright by issuing warnings and suspending or terminating customer accounts.

However, the High Court found that iiNet had no direct technical power to prevent its customers from using the BitTorrent file-sharing system to infringe copyright.

"Rather, the extent of iiNet's power to prevent its customers from infringing ... copyright was limited to an indirect power to terminate its contractual relationship with its customers," the court said.

iiNet chief regulatory officer Steve Dalby said while the company did not support illegal downloading, it was not its role to monitor or punish the behaviour of its customers by terminating internet access.

"It's not legal for us to look at what you're doing online anyway and secondly we don't have a responsibility to be the judge, jury and policeman who is working out what our customers are doing and trying to stop it and control it," Mr Dalby said.

Australian Federation against Copyright Theft managing director Neil Gane said internet service providers needed to play a central role in preventing online copyright infringements.

(Source)

This is welcome news. It's comforting to see an Australian ISP stand up to some important corporations and come out on top in a case such as this. IINET deserves praise for the way they have handled themselves. This case sends a strong message to the big entertainment corporations that people will not tolerate outdated, low-quality content. It is time to evolve to the needs of the people and deliver fresh high-quality content that is quick and easy to access. Until that becomes a reality, piracy will only increase.

Ahh I had not heard of this, GOOD! that is my ISP. They have a good reputation for ensuring that any legal threats (baseless legal threats that simply attempt to scare the ISP into submission) are just ignored.

It won't stop however, they will keep trying to stifle how things work. There is simply no way to police it other than making the internet redundant.

I'm not an advocate of piracy by any means, anything I deem worthy of a cost, I'll buy. You are right, so much sub par content at premium pricing, is what needs to be regulated....

reply to post by Dark Ghost

Every little bit of non-censorship law, appropriate judicial rulings, public awareness in any type of media, and net-savvy threads like this help in the defense of the innernests. Users in Australia should give these judges a parade!

including industry heavyweights Warner Bros, Disney and the Seven Network

Don't these people already have enough money?

That is definitely good news but it wont even make a dent with what we are up against

Considering more big companies are against us than for us

Thanks for that

reply to post by Dark Ghost

"It's not legal for us to look at what you're doing online anyway and secondly we don't have a responsibility to be the judge, jury and policeman who is working out what our customers are doing and trying to stop it and control it," Mr Dalby said.

BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Take that you morons!

Mr Dalby, I applaud you sir for having some common sense.

Completely decentralized and encrypted torrent technology will prevail.

this is also my ISP. ive been using bit-torrent for years and its good to see iinet standing up and saying its not their job to police its cumstomers.

In the future America will hate us for our freedoms

Public complacency is, again, the major issue here. The winning of individual battles is always welcome, but we are not necessarily winning the war.

I am radically, fanatically opposed to intellectual property as a concept, and believe that AFACT, and WIPO in international terms, are organisations which need to be completely abolished.

The rationally and morally illegitimate concept of intellectual property, is being demonstrated by Monsanto among others, as a direct threat to the survival of carbon based life on this planet.

It's not just about piracy; it's about human survival.

"Mr Dalby said the entertainment industry could help solve the problem by providing reasonably priced and easily accessible content to consumers around the world in a timely manner.

"This whole idea that customers should wait 12 to 18 months to get what their cousin in the United States is watching today - consumers just aren't buying that anymore," he said."

(au.news.yahoo.com...)


We are sooo far behind the United States with everything. It is just not fair.