Fran Foo and Michael Sainsbury | November 20, 2008
IN an Australian first, a coalition of film heavyweights has sued a major internet service provider for allegedly "ignoring" acts of copyright infringement by its customers.
The action against iiNet was filed in the federal Court today by Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Disney Enterprises and the Seven Network, the Australian licensee of some of the infringed works.
They are seeking unspecified damages.
The companies claim iiNet failed to take reasonable steps to prevent peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy as its customers illegally downloaded and made copies of movies.
The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) said it had to resort to legal action as iiNet allegedly ignored repeated notices over several months to curb the practice.
"iiNet refused to address this illegal behaviour and did nothing to prevent the continuation of the infringements by the same customers," AFACT executive director Adrianne Pecotic said. “iiNet has an obligation under the law to take steps to prevent further known copyright infringement via its network.
"Our members have asked the court to order the ISP to act to prevent the continuing unauthorised use of copies of our titles by its customers, consistent with iiNet’s own terms and conditions which prohibit illegal activity on its network."
Roadshow Entertainment claimed titles such as Happy Feet and I am Legend were pirated by iiNet customers via its network using bit torrent technology, a popular P2P tool.
The proceedings will be before the courts on December 17.
iiNet chief Michael Malone said the ISP was aware of AFACT's complaints and had forwarded them to the police.
"AFACT doesn't want to deal with the police and has instead chosen to take this course of action," Mr Malone said.
The music industry was the first to clamp down on P2P copyright infringement in 2003, taking Kazaa and ISP E-Talk/Com-Cen to court.