Australian ISP Wins Case Against Movie Studios

trawg writes "The Australian High Court has just dismissed an appeal by Australian and American media companies against ISP iiNet, in what will hopefully be the final step in an ongoing copyright lawsuit drama. The Court noted that 'iiNet had no direct technical power to prevent its customers from using the BitTorrent system to infringe copyright.' Ultimately, the court has held that iiNet's inactivity to act on infringement notices didn't imply any sort of authorization of that infringement by their customers. Good news for Australians as a clear line has been drawn that will help ensure ISPs don't have to bear the cost of policing their customers."

Re:The trouble is...

[johnjones]

let your MP know on this single issue you will vote against them...
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/find-your-local-mp.htm [abc.net.au]

wonder how many people actually will... worth twittering/emailing/commenting on the MP in question

regards

John Jones

Re:Great news

[Anonymous Coward]

Good. The copyright cartels are like negligent parents: they think all the rest of society should bear their responsibility for them.

Can't be bothered to be involved in your kids' life and pay attention to what they watch and what games they play? No problem! Just censor everything! Can't be bothered to do your own discovery and catch your own filesharers? No problem! Just offload the task to the ISPs without compensating them!

Tired, tired, TIRED of this bullshit. About damned time a court had some sense. Guess the MAFIAA didn't bribe^H donate to the right politicians this time?

Re:Wait, what?! The court found in iiNet's favour?

[sjwt]

I am not sure how 'lobbying' works where you come from, but over here when you 'lobby' a judge, we call that 'bribing'

Re:The trouble is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Implying the liberals aren't just as bad as labor for giving the copyright industry a massive fellatio whenever they want. Howards government started the acta talks, and the current labor signed it. This is not a switch government to fix issue situation.

Re:Great news

[pt73]

While I'm sure studios don't mind that much. They are playing a bigger game than just this case. The certainty means that any lobbying for change of law cannot be stifled by claims that the current law is adequate (for what they want). So whereas law makers could have said there was no need to change the law to achieve what the studios want, the certainty of the High Court ruling shows that the current law does not allow them to easily pursue the ISP. So expect pressure on the federal government for a law change.

Re:Short lived

[Anonymous Coward]

And you are a perfect example of an average American. Only an American can think an election is always between two parties.

Re:Wait, what?! The court found in iiNet's favour?

[TheLink]

Yeah most of those dangerous australian animals kill you relatively quickly.

Lawyers don't.

Re:Short lived

[SuricouRaven]

They only let it get as free as it is because the internet snuck up on them. No-one in government really planned the civilian growth of the internet... it just happened. If the governments of any world were allowed a do-over, you can be sure they'd make it more centralised, controlled and policeable. For the children, naturally.