ReasonTV Too Much Copyright Law

I got this from a TechDirt article that you can read here. It is an episode of ReasonTV that considers the state of copyright law and makes particular reference to SOPA/PIPA:

iiNet High Court Case Dismissed

The Australian High Court has today handed down its decision in the iiNet copyright case, dismissing the appeal and holding that the ISP, iiNet, did not authorise copyright infringement. The case concerned the use of BitTorrent to download and share films under copyright.

The appellants, AFACT, contended that: "iiNet's technical and contractual relationship with its customers gave it the indirect power to control the use of its services – that is, to prevent continuing primary infringements (through warnings, suspension of services and termination of contractual relations)..." [at 58]  "[T]he appellants' case on authorisation ultimately was that iiNet could not avoid secondary infringement unless it implemented a system designed to achieve the removal of infringing material by iiNet customers from the BitTorrent clients on those customers' computers..." [at 59].

iiNet argued however, "that authorisation cannot be determined on the basis that particular factors – such as knowledge or a power to prevent – are either present or absent. Rather, iiNet relied on the language of s 101(1A) and emphasised that each of those factors is a matter of degree, and that a court must consider the extent to which each factor exists before determining whether a person's 'inactivity or 'indifference, exhibited by acts of commission or omission, [has reached] a degree from which authorization ... may be inferred'". [at 61] 

With respect to the technical aspects of the BitTorrent protocol, the court held: "It is important to note that iiNet has no involvement with any part of the BitTorrent system and therefore has no power to control or alter any aspect of the BitTorrent system, including the BitTorrent client. Further, iiNet is not a host of infringing material, or of websites which make available .torrent files relating to infringing material[72]. iiNet does not assist its customers to locate BitTorrent clients or .torrent files by any indexing service or database entries[73]. It cannot monitor the steps taken by users of its internet services under the BitTorrent system, it cannot directly prevent users of its internet services from downloading a BitTorrent client or .torrent files, and it cannot identify specific films to which users of its internet services seek access. Once infringing material is stored on a customer's computer iiNet cannot take down or remove that material, and cannot filter or block the communication of that material over its internet service. Nor has iiNet any power to prevent its customers from using other internet services – and, as noted earlier, several users of an internet service may share an IP address. Whilst the relationship between iiNet and its customers involves the provision of technology, iiNet had no direct technical power at its disposal to prevent a customer from using the BitTorrent system to download the appellants' films on that customer's computer with the result that the appellants' films were made available online in breach of s 86(c)." [at 65]

The court noted that the information provided to iiNet from AFACT regarding breaches of copyright was not of a standard sufficient to support civil proceedings and that iiNet could have been held to be in breach of contract by its customers had it terminated their accounts. [at 75] Furthermore, iiNet's lack of activity following the receipt of the information from AFACT about copyright breaches did not demonstrate the degree of indifference required to give rise to authorisation. iiNet was unwilling to act because of the risks associated with taking action solely on the basis of information provided by AFACT and was under no obligation to employ staff or conduct further investigation itself. [at 76]

This was a unanimous decision.

Further Reading
Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd [2012] HCA 16 (20 April 2012) 

Australian Copyright Council, Landmark Judgment on Authorisation of Copyright Infringement (20 April 2012) < http://www.copyright.org.au/news-and-policy/details/id/2060 > at 20 April 2012

Gotye

I wanted to draw your attention to a clip I have just seen of a political song from Gotye called Eyes Wide Open. The song has been around for a while but I never really paid attention to the lyrics until recently. There is also an interesting clip from Gotye on how the album Making Mirrors was recorded with an interesting reference to sampling vinyl in the process of recording:

Creative Activism: an open class for media creators and change makers

I came across this website recently - Creative Activism: an open class for media creators and change makers - it is the website of a course that was run at the Coventry University in the UK. I was particularly interested to listen to the lecture given by Chris Jury from Agitpop, a community radio show on political music. You can listen to it here: Guest Lecture: Agitpop – Protest and Social Change in Popular Music – Chris Jury the power point slides and the list of songs played on the radio show are also available, as are the shows themselves - on the Agitpop Blog. The lecture was given on 7th February 2012 and in it Jury states that in his opinion, political music can and does change the world. He suggests that there is a theory of dialogical cultural transmission in which people, political ideas and culture interact in a perpetual cycle. Jury states that culture can never be content neutral and that political songs have an honesty to them because they are commonly clear about the ideology and ideas they seek to promote. For Jury, protest songs both create and change the world. He makes reference to Dorian Lynskey's book 33 Revolution Per Minute (which I have written about here) and goes on to discuss some of the political songs he has played on his radio show and their background. This is well worth the listen - it goes for an hour - it is very interesting and canvasses the intersection between pop and political activism.