[Chapter-delegates] Australian court rules in favour of Internet service provider

[Narelle]

All
In Nov 2008 a group film industry players lodged a claim against an
Australian ISP arguing it had infringed copyright by not cutting off
users downloading copyright material. The Australian Federal Court
today ruled against the film industry, saying:
iiNet did not authorise copyright infringement because
1. infringements occurred directly as a result of the BitTorrent
system, not the use of the Internet and this ISP does not control the
BitTorrent system,
2. this ISP did not have the power to prevent those infringements occurring, and
3. this ISP did not sanction, approve or countenance copyright infringement

The film industry had commissioned a third party to investigate
copyright infringement from use of the BitTorrent protocol by iiNet's
subscribers.

"AFACT employed a company known as DtecNet to investigate copyright
infringement occurring by means of a peer to peer system known as the
BitTorrent protocol by subscribers and users of iiNet’s services. The
information generated from these investigations was then sent to iiNet
by AFACT, with a demand that iiNet take action to stop the
infringements occurring. The measures which AFACT requested iiNet
perform were never precisely elucidated. However, as the evidence at
trial indicated, AFACT wanted iiNet to send a warning to the
subscriber who was allegedly infringing. If a warning was not
sufficient to stop the infringement, AFACT intended that iiNet suspend
the internet service of that subscriber. If the subscriber remained
unco-operative, termination of the internet service was sought as the
ultimate sanction. In addition, or in the alternative, the applicants
suggested that iiNet should block certain websites."

It is these steps that ISOC-AU took exception to as it seems a denial
of due process of law.


Full text of the judgement can be found at:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2010/24.html

iiNet's response:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/iinetmediareleases/~3/sbX8VqvlU9I/20100402-federal-court-judgement.pdf

here is the film industry's response:
http://www.afact.org.au/pressreleases/2010/4-02-2010.html

There are now a number of press articles out which a search will lead you to.


MEDIA RELEASE

ISOC-AU applauds today’s decision of the Australian Federal Court in
the case of Roadshow Films Pty Limited v iiNET Limited. The Court
found that iiNet, by failing to take any steps to stop infringing conduct,
did not ‘authorise’ copyright infringement by certain iiNet users.. iiNet
did not sanction, approve or countenance copyright infringement; they
did no more than provide an Internet service to their customers.

ISOC-AU believes the Internet is for everyone. ‘The Internet is an
essential part of how Australians live, work and play‘, said Narelle
Clark, Vice President of the Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU) ‘and
the Court has confirmed that ISPs are not required to be the
gatekeepers of Internet use‘.

ISOC-AU also welcomes the finding of the Court that, because iiNet did
have a repeat infringer policy, they would have been entitled to the
protection offered by the ‘safe harbour’ provisions of the copyright
legislation.

ISOC-AU recognises that people should be rewarded for their creative
endeavours and that other models may need to be used or developed to
reward content creation and distribution. We also support the right of
all to due process under law, particularly to ensure that Internet users
are not arbitrarily cut off from Internet access.



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Narelle Clark
Vice President
ISOC-AU