iiNet given support by Telstra in the case from AFACT.
Whilst defending itself against the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) lawsuit, iiNet recently revealed that its arch-rival Telstra had provided it with legal help.
Advice from Telstra’s legal team was said to have been the help it had provided.
Malone joked “I’ve got to say, when I spoke to the lawyer there, he asked how can we help, and I said ‘write me a check’. He didn’t quite agree with that one, but no, they’re providing us with expert advice and advice to our legal team.”
The Internet Service Provider also had the support of the Internet Industry Association in the case, which sees movie studios represented by AFACT alleging that users were allowed to download television shows and pirated films by iiNet, added the executive whilst talking at the recent results from iiNet for the half year up to 31st December 2008.
The support given to iiNet was in Telstra’s best interests, said Malone: “Telstra wants iiNet to win this case and to win it convincingly. Nobody wants a precedent out there that’s bad because we defended the case incompetently. While they’re not joined to this case in any way explicitly, they’re simply there to advise us.”
When the case was first filed last year Justin Milne, the media head for Telstra backed the views of iiNet. Information regarding infringers of copyright was being sent to iiNet prior to the case being filed by AFACT. Even though iiNet had stated that the Western Australian police had been sent the information AFACT are alleging that these notices were not responded to in the correct manner.
Customers whose IP addresses matched those that were allegedly involved in television shows and pirated films being downloaded were sent the infringement letter as warnings by some other ISPs.
The date for the case hearing was set as 6th October during a directions hearing held earlier in the month. The dispute by iiNet is currently not that the copyright exists for the alleged pirated titles but whether it should be held liable for anybody did infringe on copyright.
