Jazzeast

In response to a ruling of Federal Court that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is liable for its customers’ copyright-infringing behaviour, the music industry piracy investigation in Australia accused that the peak in the Internet body of the country has limited the ISP liability in cases when users infringe copyright on the networks.

Michael Kerin, general manager of Music Industry Piracy Investigations, said that, "I think that trying to downplay the implications of this decision for ISPs within Australia is taking a 'head in the sand' attitude. It is about time the IIA got their house in order and provided some real guidance to their members on their responsibilities with regard to copyright infringement. These observations would seem to be at odds with the IIA's activities in lobbying support for a fighting fund to defend the Cooper case, for that matter.”

The piracy investigator commented that the mp3s4free Web site owner Stephen Cooper’s business relationship with ComCen, the ISP in question, in sharing advertising revenue made the case as a unique one. He said that most relationships between the customers and ISPs include a benefit to the ISP such as increased traffic flow or advertising.

Kerin also disputed the comments of Alex Malik, a music industry lawyer, regarding the role of the safe-harbour immunity legislation for ISPs towards the Cooper case when dealing with infringement of materials in their networks. He further stated that "In other words, the 'safe harbour' provisions would not have provided any comfort to the respondents in this matter, even if the legislation had a retrospective effect."