iiNet CEO Michael Malone to be ISP's first witness
- — 09 October, 2009 06:20
iiNet CEO Michael Malone will be the Internet service provider’s (ISP) first witness in its civil case against the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT).
The news comes as opening arguments in the civil court case between AFACT and iiNet being heard by Justice Cowdroy in the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney came to a close yesterday.
While Malone won’t take the stand until later next week or potentially in three weeks time – depending on how long it takes to run through AFACT’s witnesses – it means both sides of the case are starting off with their respective leaders.
Today AFACT’s executive director, Neil Gane, will be the first witness in the trial after iiNet’s senior counsellor, Richard Cobden, took longer than expected to finish his opening arguments.
The Case so Far: On the first day in the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney (October 6), AFACT presented a host of arguments, accusing iiNet of not doing enough to stop its customers using peer to peer networks (BitTorrent) to share copyrighted files.
Legal representatives for the film studios and TV stations claimed a 59-week investigation into iiNet and its customers discovered "rampant copyright infringements".
Civil case lawyers for AFACT - which represents the film studios - said "there were 94,942 instances of iiNet customers making available online unauthorised copies" of movies that included titles such as Batman Begins, Dark Knight and Harry Potter.
On October 7, AFACT finished its arguments and presented its key documents. One of the documents, sighted by Computerworld, showed email communications between key iiNet employees, including CEO Michael Malone, discussing how to deal with infringement notices.
In outlining iiNet’s arguments, however, senior counselor, Richard Cobden, described AFACT’s case as a “novel composition and adventurous” and “a dramatic extension of the application of the law”. He alleged AFACT’s 94,942 claim was “artificially inflated by a contrived process”.
Yesterday, Cobden also said many of the film studios that are represented by AFACT had contractual agreements with the P2P website used by many of iiNet’s customers to share files, BitTorrent.
He said many of the film studio’s logos were displayed on the BitTorrent site. He also argued industry bodies, ISPs and AFACT had been in discussions for four or five years over the issue of the sharing of copyrighted files, but AFACT had suddenly dropped out to pursue the case against iiNet.
The case, being heard by Justice Cowdroy will run for two weeks on, two weeks break and then two weeks on again. It is expected, however, to be taken to the High Court regardless of who wins this round.
Anonymous
Mon 12/10/2009 - 23:08
This is how the members of RFUKT operate.....
I saw this "general issue" raised in a number of papers today and felt pretty outraged; And I think well it's great that the members of RFUKT have gotten far too big for their boots and far too greedy and stupid.....
If the Clubs Australia movement gets a solid grounding - it should work very well to give unsigned artists lots of exposure.
So it's not only consumers that are giving the members of RFUKT the finger, so are all the public venues.
http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/news/local/news/general/music-fee-hike-backfires/1646165.aspx
Music fee hike backfires
12/10/2009 9:08:00 AM
A PUSH by Australian record companies to make clubs, hotels, restaurants and cafes pay tens of millions of dollars more in fees to play their music has backfired.
Businesses have decided to turn off tunes licensed by the record companies and play the music of artists that are not signed to major labels.
The scheme would have increased some license fees from around $500 to almost $36,000.
A Clubs Australia spokesman was unable to say how many central Victorian businesses would have been slugged with the drastic cost hike.
“We’re talking about every restaurant, cafe and club being affected,” the spokesman said yesterday.
The fee changes would have resulted in businesses such as the Bendigo Club, which staff said yesterday had a bistro capacity of about 50, paying $3075.80 instead of the usual $62.04.
Bendigo District RSL staff said their bistro had a capacity of about 120, which would have increased fees by about $8500.
Clubs Australia announced at its annual general meeting a new scheme that would allow clubs to bypass the license fee charged by record companies.
Clubs Australia will set up a program to source and distribute the music of artists not signed to major record labels and who are consequently exempt from the restaurant tariff.
As part of the new scheme, local musicians will be given the opportunity to sell their music in clubs, while money earned from the sale of background music CDs will be used to establish a fund for talented Australian musicians.
From December 1, the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia will increase the tariff required every year by all clubs, hotels, restaurants and cafes wanting to play background music.
Clubs Australia chief executive officer David Costello said the PPCA was an organisation whose board members included senior executives at EMI Music, Warner Music, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music.
“It’s well known that record labels have suffered a decline in CD sales due to illegal downloads. If this is about countering falling revenue for the big music companies, then they should be addressing music piracy,” Mr Costello said.
“Expecting the club and restaurant industry to make up for lower CD sales is not only unfair but as we have seen today, certain to fail.
“Two years ago the PPCA increased the fee for recorded music in nightclubs by 1400 per cent as well as announcing it is increasing the fee for music played in gyms by 5000 per cent.
“The music labels are working their way through the dozens of music tariffs paid by small businesses.
“It seems only a matter of time before the PPCA increases fees for music on hold, jukeboxes, conference and pool rooms, squash courts and even swimming pools.
“Clubs are today drawing a line in the sand and will no longer use music licensed by the big Australian record labels that requires they pay an annual fee to the PPCA.”
A PPCA spokeswoman said Clubs Australia was “perfectly entitled” to go in another direction.
“The rates give artists and labels a fair and reasonable deal and were the subject of extensive consultation with the industry,” she said.