ISP iiNet beats studios in movie piracy case

The trial has gained much interest from the federal government and foreign observers. Basically, the group of Hollywood studios represented by AFACT brought a case against IINET to hold them liable for the alleged copyright infringement activity by its customers.

The studios, headed by Village Roadshow, argued that iiNet should have taken "reasonable steps" to act on infringement notices that contained internet addresses of computers using the ISP's service to apparently share pirated movies and music on peer-to-peer file networks.

However, the Federal Court today found that IINET did nothing to encourage copyright violations by allowing users to download pirated movie files through its network. The judge, Justice Dennis Cowdroy explained his decision making was based on the fact that IINET had no control over the peer-to-peer file sharing system called BitTorrent and therefore could not be held liable.

IINET was satisfied with the judgement, and affirming that it never supported breaches of law including infringement of the Copy Right Act of the Telecommunications Act.

"Today’s judgment is a vindication of that and the allegations against us have been proven to be unfounded," iiNet said.

"In relation to copyright holders, we conclude by again saying we do not, and never have supported, encouraged or authorised illegal sharing or downloading of files in breach of the copyright laws.

"We are eager to engage with the film industry and copyright holders to make this material legitimately available."

The judge recommended the application be dismissed and that the consortium of studios pay the court costs.