An Australian Internet provider cannot be held responsible for copyright violations when its users illegally download movies, a judge said Thursday in a ruling against major film companies.
The decision was likely the first of its kind, Federal Court Justice Dennis Cowdroy said, throwing out the suit by major film companies that sought to force the provider to stop its customers from downloading illegally or throw them off the Internet.
A group of 34 movie companies, including Australian branches of Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, claimed Australia’s third-largest Internet provider, iiNet, breached their film copyrights by failing to stop users from illegally sharing files.
Federal Court Justice Dennis Cowdroy ruled that while iiNet knew its users violated copyrights and failed to stop them, that did not mean that the provider was authorizing those breaches and it could not therefore be held accountable for them.
“I find that the mere provision of access to the Internet is not the means of infringement,” Cowdroy said in a summary of his 200-page ruling.
He said iiNet did not have the power to stop illegal downloads.
iiNet Managing Director Michael Malone welcomed the ruling and said his company wanted to work with the film companies to find ways iiNet users could access movies legally.
Neil Gane, the executive director of the industry group that represents the film companies, said the outcome was disappointing and an appeal would be considered.
Cowdroy said there was ample evidence that infringement of the movie companies’ copyrights was occurring on a large scale worldwide but that Internet providers should not be targeted for it “merely because it is felt that something must be done.”
“An ISP such as iiNet provides a legitimate communication facility which is neither intended nor designed to infringe copyright,” he said.
The judge said that as far as he was aware, the ruling was the first in the world in a suit claiming that an Internet service provider was authorizing copyright infringement by its users who engaged in illegal downloads.
Cowdroy said he allowed the proceedings to be published on Twitter – a first for Australia – because there had been so much interest in the case in Australia and overseas.
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More