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A coalition of Hollywood studios has lost a closely-watched piracy battle in Australia.
The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft led 34 entertainment companies including Warner Bros, Paramount, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, and others, in suing iiNet, Austrailia’s third-largest ISP, claiming it allows users to illegally share copyrighted material. A trial was held in 2009 where the studios alleged almost 100,000 instances of iiNet users making available online unauthorised copies of films and TV programs from the film studio’s catalogues. On February 4, 2010, the trial judge found that iiNet was not liable for the downloading habits of its customers.
That judgment has just been affirmed by an appeals court in Australia, which is a blow to Hollywood, which had hoped to use the decision as a legal basis to pursue ISPs for acts of copyright infringement.
Judge Arthur Emmett reviewed the case and found evidence suggesting iiNet was “dismissive and, indeed, contumelious” to copyright infringement notices. But the judge concluded that regardless of the actual quality of evidence gathered, determining the merits of a copyright allegation is a complex issue. “The respondent was understandably reluctant to allege copyright infringement and terminate [user Internet access] based on that allegation,” wrote the judge, who added that nothing in his decision foreclosed the possibility that “iiNet might in the future be held to have authorized primary acts of infringement.”
The plaintiffs will have the option of appealing the decision up to the country’s High Court.
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