Australian case says ISP not liable for peer-to-peer copying of users

An Australian court has ruled that an Internet service provider was not liable for the unauthorised peer-to-peer file-sharing habits of users to whom the ISP merely provided access. Roadshow Films claimed that iiNet had authorised copyright infringement by its users, but the Australian Federal Court disagreed. The judge said that the fact that copyright infringement was occurring on a wide scale across the ISP’s network did not mean that the ISP had authorised the wrong-doing as it was not compelled to stop the infringements. Mere knowledge that infringement was taking place was not enough.

As with English law, Australian copyright law forbids the doing or authorise of doing anything which infringes someone else’s copyright. The two legal systems have common roots, and the decision may therefore be persuasive (although not binding) on similar English court cases.

Paul Gershlick, a Partner at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP and editor of www.upload-it.com, comments: ‘It’s understandable that the music and entertainment industries want to take action against people who allow their people to lose royalty monies. However, that’s not fair on the ISPs. It would be the equivalent of taking action against the Post Office because they don’t intercept pirated material sent in the post and stop it being delivered.’