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Australian Man Found Guilty for Hyperlinking

Posted by Zonk on from the dark-day-for-the-rebellion dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Major record labels are celebrating in Sydney, Australia today. It took almost two years but they've finally won a legal battle against a Queensland man and his ISP for alleged music piracy. Amazingly, Stephen Cooper didn't even have to host the alleged pirated files. All he did (allegedly) was to hyperlink to a few sites that had infringing sound recordings. His ISP didn't escape either. Even the ISP's parent company got sued. No jail time but all parties will have to pay costs."

12 of 439 comments (clear)

  1. If he was running windows by farker+haiku · · Score: 5, Funny

    It should be hard to prove he did it... I mean, his machine could have been compromised

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    1. Re:If he was running windows by ObiWanKenblowme · · Score: 5, Funny

      Windows will even warn you if your machine has committed an illegal operation and shut it down for you - that's how good it is.

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  2. Allegedly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If he was found guilty, then the charges are proven. They are no longer alleged.

    1. Re:Allegedly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If he was found guilty, then the charges are proven. They are no longer alleged.

      Err... the charges are proven from the court's perspective. The submitter apparently doesn't agree with the court, and so for him/her the charges are still alleged.

  3. In other news.... by dr_labrat · · Score: 5, Funny

    A man in Queensland was found guilty of pointing at a stolen car in the street....

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  4. This is retarded... by advocate_one · · Score: 5, Insightful

    to put it politely... just too stupid for words... how, exactly, did he "pirate" the works in question??? Looks like we need to slap some judges upside the head with a cluestick... Google et al, had better watch out... they'll now have to filter out possible copyrighted works in any links produced in searches... this is a very dangerours legal ruling.

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  5. Linking can be taken to several levels by Lockz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How far can this go? If you can be guilty for linking to a site, what about linking to a site that links to a site? And so on ... there needs to be a point where you can't be expected to have control.

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  6. His crime by TildeMan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah, maybe we all don't think he pirated, but couldn't this still be aiding / abetting? He was encouraging other people to pirate music, and giving them the means to do so.

  7. Re:Eh? by tomstdenis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It makes perfect sense. The only reason you can't see it is you think the citizens are more important than the corporations.

    Sad really.

    Tom

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  8. Re:See, the DMCA isn't so bad by bedroll · · Score: 5, Informative
    Now in the US, the DMCA would have let the ISP off the hook scott free. Yay for safe harbors!

    Only if the ISP took down the site as of the first notice sent by the RIAA. Their safe harbors are only available if they play by the industries rules. The industry would probably offer such an agreement with ISPs even if it wasn't in the law. They don't want to hurt business unless they think those businesses are encouraging the "piracy". They're more interested in getting individuals to make examples of, like the college students that did little more than make search engines that didn't specifically exclude music files. This guy was an example to the rest of us that if we link to sites committing infringement the industry can and will find a legal loophole to get at us.

  9. Teach a man to fish by FidelCatsro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    www.google.com
    Search for "Filetype:torrent example album"
    Now what i have just done is give people the skill to find their own files and commit copyright infringement or of course search for legal downloads.
    What i have just done is far far worse than a guy linking to a few warez sites.
    Show a man a download link and he will download one file , Teach him to use google and he can warez himself for life

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  10. Consult a lawyer before each breath by Phat_Tony · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Never mention to anyone that they sell fake watches on Canal street in New York.

    Never tell anyone that there are drug dealers in the park down the street, even for their own safety.

    You had also better never report a crime to authorities. That is also providing information on how to locate illegal activity.

    Someone should print out the web address of a stolen copyrighted work that's freely available online, go into a court house in Australia, and stick it to a bulletin board. Then they should sue the government for hosting that information, citing this case as precedent.

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