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back to article Reactions to iiNet's copyright win

It may have taken A$6.5 million, but iiNet has secured a landmark court decision defending its position against a consortium of movie studios and AFACT, that is should not be held responsible for the illegal downloading of filmed content by its users. The Australian Internet industry has widely welcomed the Federal Court …

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  1. HMB

    Copyright Theft

    It's not theft, it's infringement. It doesn't deprive the original owner of the original version, but then music pirates don't hold people hostage and kill them either.

    We really do let copyright institutions abuse language something chronic.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      In most countries

      In most countries it's not even a crime, i.e. not a violation of criminal law, but of civil law. There are a few exceptions to that, of course... (think you'll find it's now actually a *crime* in the UK due to the Copyright Act 2006, but I could be wrong)

      Nice to see a vote in the direction of common sense, just wish it hadn't had to go to court and cost millions of dollars that could easily have been spent elsewhere.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Theft? Of course it is!

      I bet if it was your IP that was stolen and re-distributed you would be crying THEFT.

      Do you have any IP?

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  2. copsewood
    Big Brother

    A common carrier is not responsible for content carried

    It isn't the responsibility of the postman if he or she delivers illegally copied CDs in brown paper envelopes. It should never be the job of ISPs to inspect packets traversing the network either, despite Mandelson's law claiming otherwise.

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    1. John Angelico
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      Correctomundo, copsewood!

      I notice that the operators of wire, cable and wireless telephony networks were not among the defendants, despite the fact that they would have carried the signals and data streams.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    buckled under industry pressure

    Hardly; they just climbed in the barrel for a turn.

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  4. Oliver 7
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    Why is it that...

    it only seems to be the courts that can cut through the crap spouted by the content industry - the spin, the semantics, the lobby interests - and deliver *justice* that demonstrates a balanced approach to consumers? Our politicians are supposed to do this in the first place!

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  5. Tom Melly
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    address the growing demand for studio content to be delivered in a timely and cost-effective manner

    The above quote from the article is the point IMHO.

    I looked into using iTunes to watch films with the family. Could I burn them to dvd? No. Torrent it is then...

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  6. DaemonSeed

    Borderlands

    Postman is one thing, Borderland guards (Friendly Neighborhood Customs Inspection Agents) would be another? Assumes international lines are somehow invovled at one point or another.

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  7. Dagg Silver badge
    Flame

    AFACT are idiots, just look at roads rail etc

    Trying to prosecute the ISP is like trying to prosecute the road traffic authority, rail system etc because they do not attempt to stop any one smuggling something.

    AFACT need to be majorly reamed!

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  8. lglethal Silver badge
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    Hey El reg...

    Would have been interesting to hear AFACT and the movie industries response to the ruling. Might give us some idea whether the High Court will be forced to get involved.

    Also if your going to include a statement from such a biased front as the Pirate Party, you really ought to include a statement from someone on the other side of the fence. Balance is what we come to El reg for, balance and the facts. If i wanted to read highly biased articles only stating one sides case (even if i happen to agree with that side as in this case), i can go to the Daily Fail, the Guardian or one of the other Murdoch gutter press... I expect a bit better from The Register.

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  9. Blarkon

    iiNet certainly profits from Piracy

    Those people who are taking the really expensive iiNet packages aren't doing so because they're distributing their own content. The message here is "the only people who shouldn't profit of creative works is the creators".

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    1. Kactus
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      Stop

      Rubish

      Purchasing and downloading a single game on steam/battle.net/psn etc can eat 15GB+ of quota per person. Add wow/ffxi and youtube into the mix and we were easily exceeding the top levels of the available quota each month in our house hold with four people with no problems and that was 2 years ago.

      And that is all legitimate traffic. Please don't just assume that people with large quotas are automatically pirates who should be investigated, it is like preemptively handing out speeding tickets to people with cars that can go faster than 110 kmp/h

      Lets not forget that the techniques used are at best imprecise, laser printers have been handed DMCA take down notices for downloading pirated movies..... http://www.scribd.com/doc/28686586/Why-My-Printer-Received-a-DMCA-Takedown-Notice

      Cheers

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