iiNet judgment day: 4 February 2010
The Federal Court has confirmed that the AFACT v iiNet judgment will be handed down on Thursday, 4 February 2010.
The decision is surprisingly quick given the trial only concluded at the end of November last year.
At that time, iiNet CEO, Michael Malone, said in a press release that he was confident the Court would find that the ISP had no case to answer and dismiss AFACT’s claims.
We’ll find out on Thursday if Malone’s confidence was well placed.
ISPs: Be careful what you say to media about copyright case
Online tech magazine IT News could have inadvertently lured ISPs into legal disaster with a recent article on copyright issues.
By publishing broadband provider comments about legal advice they may have obtained, the mag could have led them to waive the right to keep the details secret.
It’s vital for CSPs to understand the risk they may create if they publicly refer to legal advice they have received.
FunnyTel introduces unit pricing in new mega-value FAT plans
Comms industry leader FunnyTel today announced its ground-breaking FAT plans.
No stranger to innovation – FunnyTel was Australia’s first ISP to introduce the random number billing that has since proved so popular with Telstra management – the FAT plans include Australia’s first internet unit pricing scheme.
‘We read about the Government’s idea for unit pricing with groceries,’ says FunnyTel spokesman Chad Blake. ‘And we thought “This makes sense.” Why should customers pay for an 80 gigs download allowance and not know exactly how many P2P movies they’ll get for their dough ?’
‘We’re actually thinking of applying to the ACCC for an award for this,’ said Blake. ‘Our 2 New Hollywood Releases a Night’ plan is a revolution in truth-in-advertising. ‘And that’s A-FACT !’ says Blake with a cheeky wink.
We asked Chad if he thought that other market leaders like iiNet would adopt the system.
Read more
iiNet and AFACT both claim ‘win’ in preliminary discovery issues
We previously reported iiNet’s request for AFACT to give it access to various documents relating to the film studios’ potential actions against other ISPs in Australia and overseas.
Yesterday, the Federal Court largely rejected iiNet’s request, limiting the scope of the documents to be produced by AFACT to certain categories relating to local infringement investigations.
At the same time, the Court ordered that iiNet discover the details of 20 anonymous customer accounts, well short of the 300 to 400 accounts reportedly sought by AFACT.
Both sides were quick to claim a minor victory – AFACT saying 20 accounts is sufficient for them to prove their case and iiNet saying they have effectively got the documents they asked for.
iiNet copyright trial booked in for October. ‘Can we talk about it ?’ asks iiNet.
In the Federal Court in Sydney this morning, Justice Cowdroy booked at least 14 court hearing days starting on 6 October 2009 for the full trial of the iiNet copyright case.
View today’s court orders.
Trial dates can be moved for a variety of reasons, but the judge has previously indicated an intention to get the case resolved promptly.
There will also be a Directions Hearing on 29 July to deal with any further matters that are required before trial.
In the meantime, iiNet has approached the copyright owners with a suggestion that they sit around a table with a mediator and attempt to negotiate an outcome. We’re not surprised that the company’s gung ho attitude to a court battle has softened. The copyright owners have said they’ll think about it, but won’t agree to anything that delays the formal trial.
More information and expert analysis to follow.
Game on: AFACT and iiNet in court
The movie industry’s copyright breach claim against ISP iiNet saw the inside of a courtroom for the first time today.
As usual for a preliminary hearing, the court only made procedural orders to advance the case to the next stage.
Copyright safe harbour is for losers
A lot of industry people think that obeying the copyri
ght ‘safe harbour’ rules means a CSP won’t breach copyright. That’s not so.
In fact, the safe harbour rules only become relevant if a CSP has already been found ‘guilty’ of copyright breach. Even though the CSP is ‘guilty’, as long as it has operated inside the safe harbour it cannot be ordered to pay damages.
So safe harbour is truly just for ‘losers’. But if you do lose an infringement case, you’ll feel like a winner if your safe harbour claim holds up and damages aren’t awarded.
AFACT v iiNet court documents online
Debate about the landmark copyright litigation rages on, and it seems thousands have opinions – many of them grounded in rather offbeat idea of the facts.
As a service to the debate, CSP Central has launched a ‘just facts’ page. No commentary. No analysis. Just facts. Bookmark it for access to a growing library of reliable information about the case and copyright law.
We’ve begun by posting the applicants’ court documents, and explaining what an ‘applicant’ is.
iiNet builds its defence against AFACT copyright claim
iiNet supremo Michael Malone has given the clearest indication yet of the company’s detailed defence to AFACT’s copyright action against it.
Writing on Whirlpool, Australian broadband’s town square, Malone laid down the law: ‘We have yet to receive any independently verified notice that show (sic) that a customer has actually infringed.’
His statement goes on to make it clear that iiNet will argue that an ISP is never obliged to discipline a user for peer-to-peer copyright infringement allegations unless they have been declared an infringer by a court; evidence that falls short of a court finding does not give an ISP any obligation to act.
Sydney internet café cops copyright fines
An internet café run by Interville Technology pleaded guilty in a Sydney court yesterday to 40 charges of digital copyright infringement, copping a fine of $82,000. It has also been ordered to forfeit terminals and servers used in connection with the infringements.
It’s a different kind of case to the recent iiNet litigation. Interville was storing and serving up whole copyright files, not just supplying bandwidth that was used by customers for peer-to-peer file sharing. But the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft is involved in both cases, and a win is a win. The court result underscores how much is at stake for iiNet and its shareholders.