Tag Archives: Justice Cowdroy

If you have an interest in copyright chances are that you, like us, have spent much of today getting excited by the two big copyright cases that were just handed down by the Australian courts.

For anyone who missed it, Judge Cowdroy of the Federal Court has handed down a decision that Australia’s third biggest ISP, iiNet, is not responsible for authorising copyright infringements undertaken by Bittorrenting clients. The decision is very long, but it is also well written and thorough, and we’re impressed with Cowdroy J’s common sense approach, with statements like “There does not appear to be any way to infringe the applicants’ copyright from the mere use of the internet” and “The law recognises no positive obligation on any person to protect the copyright of another.”

Credits—Photo: ’Laugh Kookaburra Laugh‘ by -just-jen-, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

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