"Hollywood loses final appeal in piracy case"

The appeal was based on the allegations by the film industry, that because iiNet failed to "step-in" and police the internet after their customers received copyright infringement notifications by "Hollywood", they claim iiNet are in fact, authorizing their customers to download illegally. Australia's High Court unanimously ruled otherwise, and went a little further...."the court said iiNet's power to prevent customers from pirating movies and TV shows "was limited to an indirect power to terminate its contractual relationship with its customers".

Further, the High Court said that infringement notices sent by the film industry to iiNet did not provide the ISP "with a reasonable basis for sending warning notices to individual customers containing threats to suspend or terminate those customers". (The High Court's judgement summary can be found here - http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/judgment-summaries/2012/hca...)

Not only that, but the "High Court dismissed the appeal with costs. iiNet said legal costs of the case to date were approximately $9 million and had already been expensed."

As the film industry lobbies the government which leads to back-room "discussions" for tougher copyright legislation, this decision, as seen by some experts, could pave the way for further lawsuits against ISPs in the future. "Michael Speck, a copyright expert who ran the music industry's case against Kazaa, said: "In losing the case [the film industry] still got from the courts a clear road map for how to successfully prosecute ISPs in the future and the next ISP that is prosecuted will find it almost impossible to avoid liability.""

"Intellectual property lawyer David Moore, of legal firm Cornwall Stodart, said for now ISPs are not responsible for the infringing conduct of their users but he believes this will change."

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