Courts reject attempts to delay the copyright case by iiNet

It has been revealed by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) that a decision regarding its copyright case is now expected prior to Christmas following the Federal Court rejecting attempts to delay the beginning of the case by iiNet.

The Federal Court has now increased the time that has been set aside for the case to be heard from two weeks to four weeks when it rejected the delays that had been sought by iiNet according to a spokesperson for AFACT.

The spokesperson said “The Court has locked in additional times to ensure the case is concluded by Christmas. Delaying the start of the case would obviously have delayed the outcome. That was [iiNet's] main aim today.”

For the purposes of expediency, part its claim against iiNet that related to ‘conversion’ of rights over the downloaded films had been dropped by the industry said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson said “It was a subsidiary claim. It certainly wasn’t our primary case.”

There will be a cost incurred to the industry by dropping this claim, which means that the legal cost related to addressing it to iiNet will be awarded to the company by the Federal Court. This withdrawal has been welcomed by iiNet, although it has taken the industry six months so far to finalize its claim and iiNet have expressed their frustration at this.

A component of variation that was made by AFACT back in November that pointed at iiNet as the main infringer of the copyrighted work is understood to be related to the withdrawn segment of the claim, and this component is know as ‘conversion’ in legal terms.

iiNet has turned the copyrights of the films to its advantage, which means that the benefit of holding the rights have been converted, by allegedly letting its customers download copies of the films over its network illegally is the suggestion being made.

Steve Dalby, the iiNet chief regulatory officer said “It’s frustrating for us to be six months down the track and still not to have received the final claim from the industry. The claim seems to have been a bit of a moveable feast for them. It looks to us like they’re struggling to get their claim and evidence together. We’ve wasted a lot of time and money on addressing this claim – and the Court has awarded us costs [as a result].”

Source – ITNews.com.au