We’ve covered the landmark court battle between the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) and the Aussie ISP iiNet in great detail here at TorrentFreak.
AFACT wants to hold iiNet responsible for the copyright infringing activities of their users, but they have been unsuccessful thus far.
Interestingly enough, a Wikileaks cable that was just released reveals that the MPAA (thus the American movie studios) are a main facilitator of the legal action.
“The case was filed by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its international affiliate, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), but does not want that fact to be broadcasted,” the summary of the diplomatic cable reads (emphasis added).
“Despite the lead role of AFACT and the inclusion of Australian companies Village Roadshow and the Seven Network, this is an MPAA/American studios production,” then-US Ambassador Robert McCallum writes.
So there we have it.
The landmark case wasn’t really about protecting the interests of Aussie filmmakers.
That was just a side-effect.
The revenues of American companies was what really started this case. But that was supposed to be a secret….
For more in-depth analysis of the cable we recommend Delimiter’s write-up.
