Internet Service Provider "iiNet" Won a Case Against Hollywood Film Studios

Huge Hollywood film studios lost their case against one of the largest Australian internet service provider (ISP) "iiNet". "iiNet" was accused of letting its' clients illegally download pirated movies.

Australian Federal Court ruled out that the "iiNet" did not provide access to the illegal files and the ISP was unable to prevent it.

Hollywood's biggest studios claimed that the Australian ISP was guilty. Among those studios were: "Warner Bros", "Disney", "Paramount", "Columbia" and "Twentieth Century Fox". The case stated that "iiNet" users, via "Torrent" networks, illegally downloaded thousands of files: 90 different titles of movies and TV series such as: "Batman Begins", "Transformers "and "Heroes". Data was collected for 59 weeks after June 2008.

Movie studios wanted that the ISP was to be responsible for the piracy on the Internet. This would create a global precedent and ISPs would be forced to take action against their customers.

Advocates feared that in such case, an ISP would simply disconnect alleged users from the Internet without even taking this matter to the court for investigation.

In the crammed courtroom judge Dennis Cowdroy found that there are a lot of copyright infringements in the Internet these days but said that ISPs are not directly responsible for what their users are downloading through "Torrent" networks.

"Based on the evidence it is clear that the copyright infringements are taking place on a large scale, and I conclude that this is happening globally. However, this does not hold an ISP solely responsible of the violations", - said the Cowdroy.

"Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft" (AFACT) leader Neil Gane said that he was disappointed about the court's decision, but he hoped that the country's government will take action against infringements on the Internet.

Meanwhile, the "iiNet" CEO Michael Malone congratulated the "excellent" verdict and added that the Internet industry and movie studios need to work together to find a way that movies and TV series become available on the Internet.

One of the major trials was held in Sweden against the biggest "Torrent" network - "ThePirateBay". Although the founders of "ThePirateBay" were sentenced to serve 1 year in prison and pay $3,5 million fine, the site is still fully functioning today.

Sources:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/iinet-slays-hollywood-in-landmark-piracy-case-20100204-ndwr.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay_trial