February 4th, 2010 12:12 pm

iiNet wins landmark internet piracy case

iiNet has won their landmark case against Hollywood’s biggest film studios and the Seven Network, with the court finding that the ISP did not “authorise” copyright infringement on its network.

The film and television industry giants have lost their case against internet service provider iiNet. The landmark decision was handed down in the Federal Court today.

“I find that iiNet simply can’t be seen as approving infringement,” said Justice Cowdroy.

The 200 page judgement did confirm that iiNet users had infringed copyright by downloading films via BitTorrent, however the number of infringements was far less than alleged by The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft.

AFACT, who represented Village Roadshow, Warner Bros., Sony, Walt Disney, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and the Seven Network, has been ordered to cover iiNet’s legal costs.

A significant finding by the court was that the provisioning of internet access is not the means to infringement.

“Copyright infringement occured as result of use of BitTorrent, not the Internet,” said Justice Cowdroy. “iiNet has no control over BitTorrent system and not responsible for BitTorrent system.”

The landmark case had attracted interest across Australia and overseas, with it being the first trial of its kind in the world to proceed to hearing and judgment.

The outcome of the iiNet case has potential to influence similar cases around the world.

AFACT have yet to decide whether they will appeal to the High Court of Australia.