ISPs Not Responsible For Bittorrent Piracy – iiNet Wins Court Case

Finally, there’s a little bit of good news for internet users – iiNet has successfully defended itself against the AFACT lawsuit, with the court ruling in the ISPs favour. UPDATED: With official statement from iiNet.

The court case, which saw the world’s biggest studios claim iiNet was encouraging illegal piracy by not stopping people who were doing it, lasted eight weeks and was full of mystery and intrigue. Or maybe it was boring court stuff, I can’t remember. But in any case, the judge handed down his verdict this morning, and the verdict was in favour of the ISP.

There are going to be a heap of official comments to come later this morning, but it’s probably a pretty safe bet that AFACT will appeal. As it stands, they’ve been ordered to pay iiNet’s court costs, which seems like a fairly minor punishment for being stupid…

iiNet’s statement:

Federal Court Judgment – Roadshow Films Pty Ltd & Ors v iiNet Ltd

4 February 2010: iiNet welcomes the Federal Court’s judgment.

We have never supported or encouraged breaches of the law, including infringement of the Copy Right Act of the Telecommunications Act. Today’s judgment is a vindication of that and the allegations against us have been proven to be unfounded.

iiNet has always been, and will continue to be, a good corporate citizen and an even better copyright citizen.

From our perspective today marks the end of the matter and we will continue get on with the business. We will continue to provide Australians with the access to fast and cheap broadband with innovative new services and products.

While this case has been important, not just for iiNet, but the entire internet industry, it has not distracted us from our core business.

Notably while this case unfolded:
· we launched our very successful BoB product, providing customers with the ultimate all-in-one plug and play internet and phone service;
· continued to grow our customers and revenue
· and signed content agreements with a wide range of providers, including Xbox, NineMSN, TiVO, Bloomberg, the Sydney Film Festival, Village Roadshow Films and many others

So it has been business as usual for us and with the case now behind us we look forward to continuing to do what we do best – delivering innovative content and products and great customer service.

And run Australia’s most innovative and successful internet company.

In relation to copyright holders, we conclude by again saying we do not, and never have supported, encouraged or authorised illegal sharing or downloading of files in breach of the copyright laws.

We are eager to engage with the film industry and copyright holders to make this material legitimately available.

Finally, we thank all those who have support us through this process, the iiNet staff, our loyal customers and investors, the internet industry and others and notably our legal team who worked tirelessly to achieve this important result today.