The Australian Democrats have today expressed relief at the outcome of the iiNet test case into whether Internet service Providers were liable for their customers illegally downloading copyright material.
The case was brought by a collaboration of movie studios, TV networks and other content producers against an Australian business that has grown from a Perth garage to become Australia's third largest Internet service provider, iiNet. The judge found that providing someone access to the internet did not constitute authorising a breach of copyright to occur, and cleared iiNet of any wrongdoing.
"This is a fantatic result for Australians who don't expect legitimate Australian businesses to be cornered by powerful lobby groups," said Technology Policy Coordinator Geordie Guy, "It also echos our draft policy on supporting the Internet and technology industries, which is open for comment at the moment."
The draft policy, entitled ‘Supporting the Internet and Technology Industries’, is currently available at www.democrats.org.au/policies and includes specific reference to changing the onus of responsibility from the carriage service to the creator and owner of web content.
"The legislative reform outlined in our draft policy attempts to pre-empt just this sort of bullying and Justice Cowdroy's finding shows it to be both neccessary and on the right track," Mr Guy said.
Mr Guy warned that AFACT were unlikely to conclude their efforts here. "What's needed now is strong policy to prevent further attempts to insist that Internet service providers' priorities should be dictated by frustrated special intrest groups. I believe we have some great policy out there for comment that addresses this and I look forward to feedback from Australian Internet users as well as the technology industry."
People wishing to provide feedback on the draft policy can do so by email or on the Australian Democrats campaign website against the proposed mandatory filtering of the internet, www.nointernetcensorship.com. The draft policy is open for comment until February 28, 2010.
-ENDS-
Media contact: Geordie Guy, National Technology Policy Coordinator
Email: geordie.guy@democrats.org.au
Phone: 0415797142
|
