The 4th of February saw the victory of iiNet against Roadshow Films and others, for a trial in the Federal and High Courts of Australia. A body of 34 companies unsuccessfully claimed that iiNet authorised primary copyright infringement by failing to take reasonable steps to stop its customers from downloading and sharing infringing copies of films and television programs using BitTorrent.

AFACT (who spoke on behalf of the 34 companies) claimed that iiNet “had ignored requests from the companies to discipline its customers for breaking copyright laws.“[7] The managing director of iiNet, Michael Malone, claimed that “iiNet cannot disconnect a customer’s phone line based on an allegation. The alleged offence needs to be pursued by the police and proven in the courts. iiNet would then be able to disconnect the service as it had been proven that the customer had breached our Customer Relations Agreement.”

The trial judge, Justice Cowdroy of the Federal Court, found in favour of iiNet he stated that while iiNet users did infringe, this was not the responsibility of iiNet to deal with. “iiNet is not responsible if an iiNet user uses that system to bring about copyright infringement … the law recognises no positive obligation on any person to protect the copyright of another.”

While i’m all for easy access to television shows, and films and music downloads and what not.. if companies like iinet don’t stand to protect the copyright of another- who will? It seems highly unlikely that the creator of such works could spend all their time searching to see if someone has made illegal copies of their work for free use, just saying.

Facts Found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadshow_Films_v_iiNet
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/iinet-slays-hollywood-in-landmark-piracy-case-20100204-ndwr.html