AFACT takes iiNet case to the highest court

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) is taking their case against internet service provider (ISP) iiNet to the highest court of Australia. After a pair of unsuccessful attempts to make Australian ISP iiNet responsible for the copyright infringing activities of their users, AFACT is still determined to prove their point.

The Hollywood-backed group had sued iiNet, claiming that they are infringing the film producers copyrights by condoning their customers’ illegal copying and filesharing. Australian judges, however, did not find iiNet guilty of copyright infringements and dismissed the case and the appeal. AFACT announced on their website that they decided to take this case to the High Court of Australia, claiming that appeal judges did not apply legal tests correctly. The Court’s conclusion that iiNet did not have enough knowledge of infringements taking place in order to be found as authorising them was wrong, according to AFACT. The film companies will seek to overturn the appeal decision.

Although the High Court will only look at procedural aspects of the case, the substance of the matter may be evaluated again if the High Court decides to send the case back to the Federal Court. This means the matter will remain unresolved for quite some time. For ISPs around the world, it will be of great importance to follow closely what the Australian judges decide. The appeal dictum read: “It does not necessarily follow from the failure of the present proceeding that circumstances could not exist whereby an ISP might in the future be held to have authorised primary acts of infringement.” This means there is still some space for AFACTs claim and therefore it is not at all certain that a new appeals proceeding will amount to the same result.

If the case does indeed move to the High Court, no decision is expected until late 2011 or early 2012.

Sources: AFACT, TorrentFreak