Sydney, February 04: Hollywood film studios lost a landmark court bid Thursday to hold an Australian Internet provider responsible for illegal movie downloads by its customers, in a blow to their efforts against piracy.
A Federal Court judge ruled iiNet, Australia’s third largest Internet Service Provider (ISP), had not authorised the downloads and did not have the power to stop them.
“It is impossible to conclude that iiNet has authorised copyright infringement… (it) did not have relevant power to prevent infringements occurring,” Justice Dennis Cowdroy said in his judgement.
The case, involving major studios such as Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount, Columbia and Twentieth Century Fox, was seen as the most ambitious attempt yet to force ISPs to act against piracy.
It hinged on thousands of alleged infringements on the iiNet network over 59 weeks from June 2008, involving nearly 90 films and TV series including “Batman Begins,” “Transformers” and “Heroes.”
The consortium of 34 Australian and US media content providers sent iiNet notifications of the infringements but said nothing was done about them.
Justice Cowdroy recommended the application be dismissed and that the consortium of studios pay the court costs.
The trial was also Australia’s first proceedings reported live on Twitter.
Federal Court judge Dennis Cowdroy approved the unusual measure, which resulted in hundreds of postings on the micro-blogging site.
“This proceeding has attracted widespread interest both here in Australia and abroad, and both within the legal community and the general public,” he said in a summary of the case released on Thursday.
“So much so that I understand this is the first Australian trial to be Twittered or tweeted. I granted approval for this to occur in view of the public interest in the proceeding, and it seems rather fitting for a copyright trial involving the Internet.”
–Agencies