Australian Court Gives Green Light To Disconnect Pirates

aesoteric writes "The Full Bench of Australia's Federal Court (three judges) has dismissed the film industry's appeal against a February 2010 judgment that found ISP iiNet had not authorised copyright infringement on its network. However, the ruling was a 2-1 majority and the judges have made several concessions to the Hollywood film studios. In particular, they set out a prescriptive path for the film industry to change the way it identifies alleged copyright infringers. The ruling says that if the film industry amends the format of its notices of infringement, pays the ISP to vet the notices and indemnifies the ISP against any fallout from disconnecting a customer, then disconnection is a reasonable step the ISPs should take to combat piracy. Essentially, the ruling gives internet service providers no absolute protection over the actions of their subscribers."

Re:Bit of a mixed bag

[dakameleon]

But they can send notices now - bad

It's not that they couldn't send notices before, but before it was more of a formality. They'd send the notice on as a warning that you've been noticed doing this activity, but the burden of enforcement wasn't there. Now, there's potential for a mechanism for these notices to be legitimate and enforceable - I think unless you're a hardcore committed anti-copyright activist*, you can hardly claim this is not reasonable. The burden of proof lies with the accuser, but it makes it more sensible in that Australian-based claimants should only issue notices if they have sufficient evidence to pursue conviction. Pretty sure the US ones will continue to issue their form-letter warnings no matter what.

Not all judges recommended disconnects.

[Spikeles]

Parts 436 - 442 from the full ruling show that at least one judge(remember there were 3) understands that cutting internet off is a bad idea.

The Court does not consider that warning and termination of subscriber accounts on the basis of AFACT Notices is a reasonable step, and further, that it would constitute a relevant power to prevent the infringements occurring.

Such punishment or sanction would be collective because the termination or suspension of a subscriber account would affect not just the person who infringed, but all those who access the internet through such account or use such account as a phone line via VOIP.

The law knows of no sanction for copyright infringement other than that imposed by a court pursuant to Part V of the Copyright Act. Such sanction is not imposed until after a finding of infringement by a court. Such sanction is not imposed on anyone other than the person who infringed. Such sanction sounds in damages or, if criminal, possible fines and imprisonment, not removal of the provision of the internet.