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Optus to appeal TV Now case

Optus will appeal the landmark copyright case, regarding its TV Now platform, in the High Court.

Optus will appeal the landmark copyright case, regarding its TV Now platform, in the High Court.

The Optus TV Now service was broadcasting recorded football games on hand-held devices such as iPads and iPhones, just minutes after being broadcast on free-to-air television.

Last month the Federal Court of Appeal found that it was the subscriber who actually chooses to stream broadcast events and that the action is similar to using a video cassette recorder to copy television.

Optus CEO, Paul O’Sullivan, has released a statement:

“Today we can confirm we will appeal the TV Now decision in the High Court.

“We believe the TV Now case is extremely important in deciding the future for innovation, consumer choice and competition. Increasingly, developments like cloud computing will see Australians using applications held online and wanting to store online rather than just using fixed hardware based in the home.

“Australian consumers want legitimate access to content on any device regardless of the genre and we want to continue making the latest technologies available to Australians to meet this demand.

“This is a very important public policy issue that needs to be determined by the highest court in the land, to give clarity to both consumers and the industry.

“As innovations like TV Now are readily available in other parts of the world, Australia must remain globally competitive and embrace the rapid convergence of technologies as we head towards an NBN world.”

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