iiNet renews call for industry collaboration on copyright

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 11 August 2011 18:52

IT Industry - Strategy

On the eve of a the High Court hearing an appeal application from the movie studios that have been waging a long running legal battle with iiNet over copyright issues, iiNet has called for the industry as a whole to get together and make content legitimately available online.

iiNet CEO, Michael Malone, said a genuine whole-of-industry discussion and approach was needed. "We remain committed to developing a workable industry solution that sees more content readily and cheaply available online as well as a sensible model adopted for dealing with repeated copyright infringement activity," he said. "This approach would be a win-win for all concerned."

The High Court in Sydney will tomorrow, 12 August, hear an application for it to hear an appeal in the case, from the 34 movie studios that launched the initial action against iiNet in 2009.

The Federal Court handed down its decision in the original case on 24 February 2010, finding that iiNet had not authorised any breach of copyright by its customers who had downloaded copyright videos from peer-to-peer networking sites. The movie studios appealed the judgement and it was upheld by the majority of the judges hearing the appeal.

The movie studios then lodged an application with the High Court for it to hear a further appeal. According to iiNet, "The studios do not seek to challenge any factual findings made by the [previous] Courts'¦The application for special leave to appeal relates to the interpretation of the law concerning copyright infringement by authorisation."

Specifically, if the leave to appeal is granted, the High Court will have to examine the extent of iiNet's power to prevent the breach of copyright; the nature of iiNet's relationship with its customers; whether iiNet took any other reasonable steps to prevent or avoid the copyright breaches, including whether it complied with any relevant industry codes of practice.