iiNet seeks to better court's ruling through AFACT's appeal

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 18 March 2010 16:43

Your IT - Entertainment

iiNet has lodged its response to AFACT's appeal against the unfavourable judgement AFACT received in its copyright case against iiNet saying it hopes the appeal court will confirm the main findings of the initial judgement and also overturn those aspects of the case where the Court did not find in iiNet's favour.

In his judgement handed down on 4 February Justice Cowdroy found against AFACT's principal accusation that, by not acting to prevent its customers illegally downloading copyright material, iiNet had authorised breach of copyright. However he dismissed some of the grounds on which iiNet had sought to contest AFACT's claims.

iiNet CEO, Michael Malone, said: "We go into this latest legal round anticipating we will come out in an even stronger position than when we won last month. Justice Cowdroy's judgment was unequivocal and we are confident the Full Court will confirm his ruling and strengthen it."

iiNet says its Notice of Contention specifically seeks to have the Full Federal Court reconsider two aspects of the original decision.

"First, in relation to Section 112E of the Copyright Act 1968, Justice Cowdroy expressly indicated he was 'sympathetic' to iiNet's arguments, but that he was 'bound to follow the Full Court's interpretation' from the 2006 Cooper case.

Section 112E provides that: " A person (including a carrier or carriage service provider) who provides facilities for making, or facilitating the making of, a communication is not taken to have authorised any infringement of copyright in an audio-visual item merely because another person uses the facilities so provided to do something the right to do which is included in the copyright."

CONTINUED