Why AFACT’s piracy statistics are junk

By Benjamin Eltham

28 February 2011

Yesterday, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (let’s call them AFACT or perhaps ‘Big Content’ for short) lost their appeal in the long-running and important copyright infringement suit against Australian ISP iiNet. As usual, some of the best commentary can be found by Stilgherrian (who really does need a second name, don’t you think?):

If you came in after intermission, you’ll pick up the plot quick enough. AFACT said iiNet’s customers were illegally copying movies, which they were, but iiNet hadn’t acted on AFACT’s infringement notices to stop them. AFACT reckoned that made iiNet guilty of “authorising” the copyright infringement, as the legal jargon goes. iiNet disagreed, refusing to act on what they saw as mere allegations. AFACT sued.

In the Federal Court a year ago, Justice Dennis Cowdroy found comprehensively in favour of iiNet. It was a slapdown for AFACT. AFACT appealed, and yesterday lost. Headlines with inevitable sporting metaphors described it as  two-nil win for iiNet.

But read the full decision and things aren’t so clear-cut.

One of the three appeals judges was in favour of AFACT’s appeal being dismissed. Another was also in favour of dismissal, but reasoned things differently from Justice Cowdroy’s original ruling. But the third judge, Justice Jayne Jagot, supported the appeal, disagreeing with Justice Cowdroy’s reasoning on the two core elements — whether iiNet authorised the infringements and whether, even if they had so authorised them, they were then protected by the safe harbour provisions of the Copyright Act.

There’s plenty of meat for an appeal to the High Court, and that’s exactly where this will end up going. Wake me when we get there.

To read the full article, please visit A Cultural Policy Blog: Why AFACT’s piracy statistics are junk (opens in a new window), posted February 25, 2011, by Benjamin Eltham.