The battle lines have been drawn for the next round of legal argument over Internet Service Provider (ISP) liability for online copyright infringement. Today, the High Court of Australia granted Roadshow Films and 33 other film studios special leave to appeal from the decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia, handed down on 24 February 2011.
For our eAlert! on the Full Federal Court decision, click here.
Neil Gane, executive director of Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), the organisation assisting the film studios in responding to the alleged infringement of their copyrights, said in a media release, "the Full Federal Court unanimously found that iiNet had the power to prevent the infringements of its users from occurring and that there were reasonable steps it could have taken, including issuing warnings...However two judges of the Full Court went on to find that iiNet had not authorised the infringements of its users...We say they did not apply the legal test for authorisation correctly".
The decision of the High Court of Australia to hear the appeal is the latest in a string of recent global developments relating to ISP liability. Most recently, the High Court of Justice in London ordered the largest ISP in the United Kingdom to block access by its subscribers to a website designed to facilitate illegal downloads (for our related eAlert!, click here).
Watch this space.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
