Hollywood Loses Final Appeal in Piracy Case

Stephen: The Illuminati-controlled Hollywood – home of most of the violent, anti-ET and fearful alien invasion films over the past few decades (but not “Paul”, pictured at left) – has been dealt a major copyright blow by the Australian High Court today in a landmark decision that has global repercussions for various recent internet control and online censorship acts.


Studios such as Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and Disney were among 34 studios who had taken Aussie ISP iiNet to court claiming that because its customers infringed their copyright, iiNet was legally responsible. The court dismissed the case today in its final appeal.

Ben Grubb – Sydney Morning Herald – April 20, 2012

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/hollywood-loses-final-appeal-in-piracy-case-20120420-1xb12.html

A damaging blow has been dealt to the giants of the film industry in the (Australian) High Court today after it decided to dismiss their copyright infringement appeal case against internet service provider (ISP) iiNet.

The High Court’s five judges unanimously dismissed the appeal. In a summary the court observed that iiNet “had no direct technical power” to prevent its customers from illegally downloading pirated content using BitTorrent.

The court said iiNet’s power to prevent customers from pirating movies and TV shows “was limited to an indirect power to terminate its contractual relationship with its customers”.

Further, the High Court judges said that infringement notices sent by the film industry to iiNet did not provide the ISP “with a reasonable basis for sending warning notices to individual customers containing threats to suspend or terminate those customers”‘.

If the film industry had won, the decision had the potential to impact internet users and the internet industry profoundly as it sets a legal precedent surrounding how much ISPs are required to do to prevent customers from downloading movies and other content illegally.

The film industry – and content owners more broadly – want ISPs to send warning notices and even disconnect customers from the internet following allegations of copyright infringement. The ISPs have long said that content owners already have sufficient remedies through the courts and it is not the job of the ISP to decide whether someone is guilty of content piracy. The courts have so far sided with the ISPs on this point.

Recently content owners and ISPs have been back at the negotiating table over this issue however it is understood that a consensus has yet to be reached. The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has previously said that he was awaiting the outcome of the iiNet case before deciding whether new legislation was needed to crack down on illegal downloaders.

But just because iiNet won in the High Court does not mean ISPs will be off the hook and not responsible for piracy because experts say a previous judgment in the case paves the way for further lawsuits against ISPs.

Michael Speck, a copyright expert who ran the music industry’s case against Kazaa, said: “In losing the case [the film industry] still got from the courts a clear road map for how to successfully prosecute ISPs in the future and the next ISP that is prosecuted will find it almost impossible to avoid liability.”

But Hamish Fraser of Truman Hoyle Lawyers said: “I think most practitioners struggle with the idea that an ISP should be liable for the downloading of its users.”

The suit against iiNet was first filed in November 2008 by a group of the biggest Hollywood studios including Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as the Seven Network.

The film studios had sued iiNet arguing that by not acting to prevent illegal file sharing on its network it was essentially “authorising” the activity and was therefore liable.

But after an eight-week Federal Court trial in 2009 that examined whether iiNet authorised customers to download pirated movies, Federal Court judge Justice Dennis Cowdroy found that in February 2010 the ISP was not liable for the downloading habits of its customers.

The studios appealed the decision, but again lost in a judgment handed down in February 2011 after two of the three Federal Court appeal judges sided with iiNet.

The studios then appealed to the High Court, which heard the case between November 30 and December 2 last year, and which delivered its judgment today.