Background
The case against iiNet was filed on 20 November 2008. Speaking on behalf of Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Disney Enterprises, Inc, the Seven Network and others, AFACT claimed that iiNet "had ignored requests from the companies to discipline its customers for breaking copyright laws." The managing director of iiNet, Michael Malone, claimed that "iiNet cannot disconnect a customer's phone line based on an allegation. The alleged offence needs to be pursued by the police and proven in the courts. iiNet would then be able to disconnect the service as it had been proven that the customer had breached our Customer Relations Agreement,"
The film companies' representative, AFACT, had conducted investigations into peer-to-peer-file-sharing network BitTorrent and found evidence that iiNet users had infringed the film companies' copyright. As of July 2008, AFACT sent notices to iiNet, providing information that iiNet users were using BitTorrent to infringe the copyright of the film companies. However, those notices had not enclosed AFACT's methodology. AFACT requested that iiNet prevent its users from infringing copyright through the suspension or termination of accounts of relevant users. The ISP did not act on AFACT's request, stating that, while copyright infringement was not approved, iiNet was not liable to take action on the basis of allegations.
On a directions hearing on 6 February 2009 AFACT claimed that the three major issues were; whether iiNet authorized the acts of infringement, whether iiNet was liable for the actions of its customers and whether the safe harbor provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 protected iiNet. In February 2009, iiNet revealed that it had received legal assistance from its competitor, Telstra.
In March 2009, Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy commented on iiNet's defence. Conroy said in response to iiNet as having "no idea if any customers are illegally downloading music" that this defence was "stunning" and "a classic". The Shadow Communications Minister Nick Minchin criticised the Minister for publicly discussing an active case and suggested he was deflecting attention away from proposed mandatory internet filtering.
More than A$1 million was paid to iiNet for legal costs in developing a defence that was not needed after AFACT made an adjustment to their claim. AFACT removed a claim called conversion which suggested iiNet was using copyright to its own advantage by allegedly allowing customers to illegally download copyrighted material. These changes also delayed the court case because iiNet was awarded more time to amend their defence.
Read more about this topic: Roadshow Films V Ii Net
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