Meanwhile in Federal Court : AFACT verse IINET

Whilst most of the Internet populace in Australia maybe un-aware but there is a legal battle that is been fought between the industry associations and one of the selected and most successful ISP in Australia in recent years Iinet. The battle for them (meaning ISP and the music and film industry) is over copyright infringement but what it means for the common consumer base is soon they seek to invade our freedom and rights on the way we use the internet. What it means for me, for you and for your associates is internet censorship is probably on the way if Iinet ultimately looses every bit of credibility in their opening , evidentiary and closing arguments. What scares me the most is the practices they would have to use to censor and monitor our use of internet would and may reflect if things turn for the worst the image of censorship that are in place following the ranks of China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Where youtube is banned and certain entertainment prohibited from broadcasting for opposing the themes of the best interest of their country. People may think the dull debate over copyright infringement is old news but really this court case shows that it’s entirely and absolutely current news and from where things stand it is not looking well for other ISPs who will become the next targets. Even the IIA (internet industry associations) move to intervene with the case was almost immediately dismissed by the judge saying it has nothing new to add shows how compelling AFACT have been with bringing up this challenge. The case certainly seems in favour of the industry associations and if this battle is lost then all ISPs will have to hold responsibility on the data shared on their networks. The case has just been wrapped up in Sydneys Federal Court after 5 weeks of hearing, and now both sides are finishing their closing submissions, Iinet has revealed it has expended a $4 million hit during this legal ordeal and the Judge has said ‘I will endeavour to deliver a judgement as soon as possible’ ‘but it will not be this year’

One can view while this may only concerns the industries they have not considered the opinions of the mass consumers and the general impact it will have on the economic and telecommunications industry. Speaking on behalf of a very Asian establishment alone you can only imagine if monitoring and censorship for every content deemed illegal or a infringement of copyright defeats the sales of ‘high capacity plans’ for them. For the most part the ISPs will have to take responsibility of removing users infringing copyright, and its not hard to target which ones simply just by looking at the high end plans customers and establish a easy guess from there if they aren’t running a business with it.