Internet Law HA3

International perspectives on third party liability:

Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Limited (No. 3) [2010] FCA 24 (AFACT v iiNet) is a landmark case in third party liability for copyright infringement. The judgement is available both in summary and in full here:

https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2010/24.html

The case is very interesting and the judgement is clear and well written, and you may want to review it if you have an interest in the detection and prosecution of copyright on the internet. For this assignment you need only read paragraphs 3-21 of the summary. (Paragraphs 13, 16 and 17 involve specific legal provisions in Australian copyright law beyond the scope of this course; you may ignore them for this assignment.)

– Review the facts and reasons for judgement in the summary of the judgement and discuss whether the same outcome would have been reached if the case was decided under UK copyright law.
– Also consider whether the facts in the summary judgement would allow the safe harbour provisions found in the Electronic Commerce Directive to protect iiNet (if they were a UK ISP).
– Discuss critically whether it is appropriate to regulate the actions of individuals by holding ISPs liable for authorising their customer’s copyright infringement.