ARN

AFACT appeals iiNet case to the High Court

The anti-piracy group wants to take its case to the High Court after its recent defeat in the Full Federal Court.

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has decided to appeal to the High Court after its copyright infringement case against iiNet was squashed by the Full Bench of the Federal Court.

AFACT represented a number of high-profile movie studios in taking the Perth-based ISP to the Federal Court. The anti-piracy group claimed iiNet was responsible for the movie piracy by its subscribers because it failed to prevent the copyright breaches.

iiNet won the case in February 2010 but AFACT made an unsuccessful appeal to the Full Bench of the Federal Court. The verdict was announced last month.

“The Full Federal Court unanimously found iiNet had the power to prevent the infringements of its users from occurring and there were reasonable steps it could have taken,” AFACT executive director, Neil Gane, said in a statement. “However two judges of the Full Court went on to find iiNet had not authorised the infringements of its users and is what we are appealing.

“We say they did not apply the legal test for authorisation correctly.”

AFACT is confident of its grounds of appeal and that its request for special leave to the High Court will be granted.

iiNet has maintained further court action from AFACT will not stop illegal downloading.

“It’s time for the film industry and copyright holders to work with the industry to make their content legitimately available,” iiNet chief, Michael Malone.

The ISP industry has been rocked by the court case.

The Internet Industry Association (IIA) announced this month it was looking into developing a copyright code in light of the iiNet versus AFACT judgement.

iiNet has come out with its own solution to tackling piracy which involves setting up an independent body to act as a mediator between content holders, ISPs and consumers.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: ACT, IIA, iiNet, Internet Industry Association
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the ARN comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: AFACT, copyright, iinet, mobile solutions, piracy
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events.
ARN Distributor Directory
Find distributors by name | vendor | location
Channel Deals
/deals/aca-pacific/442_rimage-trade-in-program-inkjet-to-everest-ther
ACA Pacific

Rimage Trade-In Program - Inkjet-to-Everest Thermal Printing. Ends June 15th, 2012.

More details »
ARN Vendor Directory
Find vendors by name | category

iAsset is a channel management ecosystem that automates all major aspects of the entire sales,marketing and service process, including data tracking, integrated learning, knowledge management and product lifecycle management.