iiNet appeal may not solve piracy issue
- — 05 August, 2010 07:27
A Federal Court judge has questioned whether a decision by the court in the appeal between film studios and internet service provider iiNet will actually resolve the dispute over copyright infringement by internet users.
The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), representing 34 studios, is appealing an earlier Federal Court decision that found iiNet did not authorise customers to illegally download films using its service.
Film studio lawyers argued on Tuesday that iiNet had the means, technical ability and power to act to prevent its users from committing film piracy.
On Wednesday, the third day of the appeal, lead judge Justice Arthur Emmett raised concerns that the appeal process did not have the significance it should because a finding may leave the way open for AFACT to submit new infringement claims and sue iiNet again.
"Is all of this just a waste of time because whatever happens in the appeal, Mr Catterns (the barrister representing AFACT) will just start over again?" Justice Emmett remarked.
"What is the real issue between the parties in the real world? Is it just a matter of who bears the cost of dealing with all this?
"It seems to be a continuing problem and that whatever we decide in this case isn't going decide what goes on in the future.
"It just seems to me that out there is a commercial solution and there's nothing we [the Federal Court] can do that will ultimately resolve this problem.
"Even if we decide one thing - and iiNet may be successful - Mr Catterns can just start again with another set of background information."
The barrister representing iiNet, Richard Cobden, had argued AFACT did not provide iiNet with a specific and reasonable set of steps to prevent copyright infringement in its original notifications.
Mr Cobden also argued it was unreasonable to expect an ISP like iiNet to police infringing customers by identifying and terminating them, as such an infringement policy would be time consuming and ultimately unmanageable.
"They [AFACT] never asked us to take graduated steps [in the notifications]. They just said 'terminate [the account]' and that's unreasonable."
Justice Emmett said it was possible that if iiNet was won on the point that AFACT never outlined a series of reasonable steps the ISP should take in response to its notices, the film industry could resubmit a fresh batch of infringement claims.
He said these would include sufficient detail and a list of graduated steps to be taken and restart the legal process.
The hearing is continuing.
Jahm Mitt
Sun 08/08/2010 - 09:20
The RIAA and MPAA even scam thir own.
AFACT - they are so crooked even their bogus PR campaign is a lie.
http://torrentfreak.com/tech-news-sites-tout-misleading-bittorrent-piracy-study-100724/ [torrentfreak.com]
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100708/02510310122.shtml [techdirt.com]
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-disney-20100708,0,4051564.story [latimes.com]