Judge: Users Are Responsible For Their Actions

In a win for clear thinking and sanity, the Australian Film and Television Industry lost a poorly targeted case against iiNet for what its users downloaded.  It is going to likely become a landmark case with regard to who's responsible for piracy - it looks like the legal system in Australia thinks that those who download pirated material are responsible for their own actions and the ISPs and/or carriers themselves are not responsible for the illegal actions of their users that are clearly *against* the AUPs of the ISPs and carriers anyway.

So, sanity rules - this time!  :)

I'm a big believer in being responsible for your own decisions and actions and not blaming others for your choices.  And it seems that Justice Dennis Cowdroy agrees with me: "It is impossible to conclude that iiNet has authorised copyright infringement ... (it) did not have relevant power to prevent infringements occurring."  The judge also ordered the studios pay the court costs.

Now, don't think that I condone piracy for a second - but I don't blame iiNet any more than Microsoft for enabling users to download pirated material - after all, not only did they use iiNet's Internet connectivity, many of them used a Microsoft Operating System to access the Internet - so if iiNet was responsible, then Microsoft should have been, too.  And the Electricity authority who provided the power.  And Laser or whoever manufactured the blank DVDs that the pirated content was burned onto.  And Seagate or whoever made the hard drives that stored the pirated content.  You may now see how ridiculous this claim that the AFTI made against iiNet truly was.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie