Comments on: Movie Studios Spied On ISP’s BitTorrent Users

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:52:54 +0000

And how would shutting down a couple torrent sites cease piracy? Piracy will always be in existence, and, really, just a few lawsuits upon few particular groups of pirates and such won’t do anything. The government should waste its time on something more important than piracy.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:36:50 +0000

@ 11 it has been amended many times since 1968.

By: Pharaoh

Pharaoh — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:01:09 +0000

No, it’s not entrapment. It would have to be done by actual police to be entrapment, this investigation was performed by independent third parties with absolutely no standing to legally declare somebody an infringer. That said the action itself would be a textbook definition of entrapment if it actually was done by police.

The movie studios clearly gave permission for their investigator to distribute their wares and therefore anybody who downloads them is within their legal rights. The fact that they are then redistributing it themselves to other peers in the same swarm might be illegal unless you argue that this right was granted implicitly by the uploader because of the protocol he chose to distribute with.

The fact that his IP and those of the peers he legally distributed to was included on the list of infringers makes this a case for the exact opposite of what the studios are saying: it proves that allegations of infringement can and often are incorrect and should not be accepted as legally binding. iiNet would still be within their rights to disconnect anyone on that list, but the ‘evidence’ gathered by the movie studios is completely invalid on its own.

By: me3p0

me3p0 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:25:50 +0000

Piracy has been around for generations, whether or not they shut down all torrent sites or not, piracy will continue.

TV and movie studios need to stop wasting money on law suites and put some money into researching ways to embrace technology for what it is: a massive global market.

By: dr dre

dr dre — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:01:32 +0000

lol, so why not sue Wallmart for selling guns to ppl that then; shoot other ppl; kill; robberies?
sue holden for selling cars that go too fast?
sue Macca’s for making people fat?
the list can go on and on.
its a joke.
its only illegal if you sell.

By: mr plop

mr plop — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:46:23 +0000

i would suggest to read the apcmag article, raises some interesting points. scary really.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:43:39 +0000

i wander if they would’ve sued if they did disconect Mr herpes, saying its disrupting a investigation by him being cut off by isp, sounds like a catch 22

By: Schroe

Schroe — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:45:53 +0000

Interesting part here that no one is picking up on. iiNet are only required to disconnect copyright infringers.

Last I checked, copyright infringment is an offence in australia (aka, a crime). And since our country’s legal system is based on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”, the ISP cannot treat someone as a copyright infringer until AFTER a court determines that the individual is actually guilty. Of course, a court could order them to discontinue service, but that would also require an investigation by an entity legally empowered to do so.

None of this has happened here. All that has happened is a third party has alleged wrongdoing to an organisation which has no responsibility. Essentially calling main roads to report a robbery because the getaway vehicle was using their roads. The only action they could take is pass it on to the police, which iiNet has done.

iiNet is on firm legal and, more importantly, moral ground.

By: dan

dan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:49:22 +0000

how can an American organization sue an Australian company? come on federal court don’t let Aus become another state of America

By: Marcos

Marcos — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:01:00 +0000

Dam straight. What happens to the ISP when they potentially disconnect a user based on the flimsy evidence provided by these studios? Haven’t we seen time and time again that an IP Address doesn’t prove anything.

If iiNet loses this case it will be a very sad day for Australians. Compared to Europe and the US we Australians have very limited options when it comes to a choice of ISPs.

We pay shit loads of money for often very slow connections that have a limit on the amount we can download. This is made ever more clear to me as I have spent the last two years living in Europe where I pay almost nothing and have no limit. I download all my movies and TV here as I want them in English and I live in a non-english speaking country.

If these studios want to have any chance at reducing the amount of piracy in Australia they need to do a number of things.

Firstly release there TV shows to Australian TV when the release them to American or European audiences, or at least a lot closer then they do now. Same is true of movies. If I have to wait six months to see the movie in the Cinema or it doesn’t even come to my small town cinema than I am going to download it.

They need to stop attacking there customers and start providing the services which the customers want. I will not deny that I like the free factor but when I am in Australia I often get movies out of the DVD shop as I enjoy browsing the movies on the shelf.

Here where I am now i sometimes even watch a movie in another language with out subtitles because I like going to the movies.

Good luck iiNet