Case against copyright begins
Lawyers claim evidence of almost 100,000 instances of iiNet users making available online unauthorised copies of films and TV programs.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Yesterday was the first day of court proceedings in the case between film & television studios and iiNet over online piracy.
The Seven Network is one of the companies pursuing the case with film studios against the ISP.
Film industry lawyers said its investigators demonstrated 97,942 instances of unauthorised copies being made available by the ISP’s customers over a 59-week period.
Of those, just under one-third – 29,914 – related to a sample of 86 works named in the court proceedings including Batman Begins, Batman – Dark Knight, Happy Feet, Spiderman 3, The Simpsons and Family Guy.
Lawyers for the film industry claimed iiNet had done “nothing” to discourage copyright infringement on its network.
But iiNet has argued that it should not be held responsible for the actions of its users, and should not be required to police the internet for illegal activity. It has previously stated it does not in any way support, or encourage, breaches of the law, including infringement of copyright.
”We provide internet access, that’s what we make profit from,” said the managing director of iiNet, Michael Malone. He called the case adventurous, likening his business to Australia Post, which was not responsible for the content of the packages it delivered.
The case continues.
Share
- Tagged with Family Guy, The Simpsons
15 Responses
CDs are digital too people -_-
intellectual property does have a purpose, actors, writers and everyone else involved in making movies and tv will not work for free, none of us do so why would they. if they aren’t getting paid then there will be less content for all of us to download or watch on tv. the best way is what others have said, provide a legal way and people will use it, it is much easier to find legal downloads and they are safer with less viruses. it is very easy to just go to the 7, 9 or 10 websites, if only the shows were actually available there, but they’re not. to make money they just need to use advertising or charge a small fee, but less than itunes please as that adds up very fast and the rental store is cheaper (but we have to wait longer).
This is ridiculous. And anyway, standard ISP agreements include statements to the effect that users won’t use the service for this and that, blah blah blah, so iiNet should be covered. They did something to “discourage” the sort of activity mentioned in the case.
Didn’t these media companies learn anything from the music industry suing its customers and losing their loyalty?
i doubt very much that the film/tv studios would win, you can’t expect the isp’s to monitor every upload and find out weather they the uploader has the rights to or not. they simply don’t have the resources and maybe not even the right! to do that. and why are they only suing iinet im sure telstra and optus is used to upload pirated files at lot more since they are a larger isp, obviously the film/tv studios are to scared to take on the big guys so they target the smaller isp’s. great example by iinet with Australia post by the way.
i personally agree with anyone that thinks that Nine,Seven and Ten need to do an online video player , similar to ABC’s iView, as it will be better for people who miss out on episodes of their fave tv shows 🙂
This is just another reason never to watch Channel Seven. Remember, every time you watch C7 you are effectively financing this ridiculous lawsuit.
Screw “intellectual property”. After all, it only exists in our heads.
I looked all over iinet site and i can’t find the page with the free movie and tv downloads anywhere.
Notice they didn’e sue Telstra or Optus (you know, the major ISP’s who will have more ‘illegal’ activity).
That way they don’t get slammed by multi-million dollar lawyers and leave the court with their tails between their legs.
Conroy’s internet filter will be modified to log this sort of stuff though, even if he say’s it won’t…
This is a load of crap. Why is it iiNet’s fault that people are illegally downloading films/shows?
I reckon everything should be on-demand now days. Seven, Nine and Ten could do this without loss of revenue, just put the same ads in as there is on the broadcast show. If I’m out and miss a show right now there is no way for me to see it without illegally downloading it. If Ten, Nine and Seven just hosted the site afterwards, ads and all, I’d be able to watch it no problem.
“Music studio’s attampted the same thing 10 years ago, but the fact is, people will buy music if it’s available now, in a digital format, at a reasonable price and on a per-song basis. This has been proven with the huge success of the ITMS and Amazon music store.”
Yes, but physical album sales have still dropped more than digital sales have risen.
@Marco: their lawyers only chronicled just under 100,000 alleged breaches. They obviously cannot catalogue all of them, since they do not have access to iiNet’s servers and their logs.
@ Craig and Ryano – exactly! The iiNet argument that they’re like Australia Post in terms of responsibility for their customers’ actions is precisely right. This idealogically-drivn court case is patently ridiculous, and I do hope justice prevails and the moguls and Seven lose.
If they win, you’d better invest in seriously kick-ass encryption software for everything you do online. Just in case you inadvertently breach someone’s “intellectual property”.
Oh, and @David – this isn’t a case against copyright. It’s a case attempting to uphold (and expand, in a way) copyright.
Gosh I’m surprised it was *only* around 100,000 instances for iiNet in a 59 week period. There’s got to be a lot of widespread illegal downloading (not just iiNet) that goes unseen.
If iiNet lose this case, which IMO would be a farce, then all hell will break loose from here on in.
Why the heck don’t studio’s and networks get on board an accept the fact that their content delivery systems are antiquated, and that VOD is in demand…
Foxtel are dipping their feet in, albeit with horrible DRM and DRM players, but at least it’s a start.
ABC has been doing it right for nearly 2 years with iView. SBS is beginning to get in on the action too.
Seven, Nine and TEN (plus movie studio’s) need to work on establishing pay-per-view VOD services, and alternative means of distrubtion such as the already-working iTunes MS.
Music studio’s attampted the same thing 10 years ago, but the fact is, people will buy music if it’s available now, in a digital format, at a reasonable price and on a per-song basis. This has been proven with the huge success of the ITMS and Amazon music store.
Get with the program TV and film studios and networks…
Unless iiNet is hosting the files then IMO they can’t be held responsibly, is Telstra at fault when someone uses the phone lines (or NextG) to DL copyrighted files?
You mean this thing was not thrown out of court on day 1?
What a load of crap.
Individual internet users are responsible for actions online, not the internet providers.
7 and the rest of the pr***s picking on iinet need to do some soul searching.