As Britain moves perilously towards a new culture of regulating the previously unregulated world of the internet, a landmark ruling was made yesterday by our antipodean counterparts.
An Australian court ruled that the country's third-largest broadband operator cannot be held responsible for the actions of illegal file-sharers.
As reported over at the Guardian:
iiNet was being sued by more than 30 film and TV studios, including Village Roadshow, Universal, Sony and Warner Bros, for allowing its users to download copyrighted material. Sydney's federal court, however, ruled that the company cannot be held liable for the downloading habits of its customers. If iiNet had lost the case it would essentially have been required to police its users on behalf of copyright holders.
The politics of the internet is never going to be simple, but creating criminals out of people who are merely using the technology available to them is a massive infringement of liberty. Touching upon this, Michael Malone, iiNet's co-founder, said
"we've probably wasted a year. When iiNet, the internet industry and the rights holders could have been working together to find better models.”
While this ruling will not directly impact upon British law, it will be encouraging news for UK based Internet Service Provider’s such as TalkTalk, who have publically opposed impending legalisation that will require ISP’s to not only police their customers – but to disconnect those suspected of ‘illegal’ filesharing.
This is, I believe, a positive step towards recognising our right to privacy. Let’s hope the British courts follow Australia’s lead.
By Edward Hockings
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