Slashdot Mirror
In AU, Film Studios Issue Ultimatum To ISPs
bennyboy64 writes "The Australian court case between the film industry and ISP iiNet drew to a close yesterday after the film studios issued an ultimatum: Take copyright responsibilities seriously or leave the industry. 'Businesses such as ISPs want to enjoy the benefit of being able to make money out of the provision of Internet service facilities and they enjoy that benefit. But it carries with it a responsibility,' said Tony Bannon SC, the film industry's lawyer. 'They provide a facility that is able to be used for copyright infringement purposes. If they don't like having to deal with copyright notices then they should get out of the business.' iTnews has done a short one minute interview with iiNet's CEO Michael Malone as he left the court on the final day. Also on the final day, the judge dismissed the Internet Industry Association's involvement in the case."
Playing the devil's advocate on slashdot without a preamble of "I hate xyz as much as the next guy but.."?
I hope you have enough karma to burn.
Also, around here the only valid objection to an analogy is that it was not a car analogy.
Thank you for your attention.
In pizza business it's quite common thing to be nice towards your customers. If I get a copyright notice from MPAA after serving my customer a pizza, I wont just take that pizza away. He can continue eating it until court orders me to stop providing food for the guy. But even if I have to stop providing him food, I will continue providing him mountain dew. If the ISP is also a mobile phone operator and is ordered to cut the customer, it should only affect the service in question.
The thing is, I'm a common carrier when I'm delivering pizzas as a pizza delivery guy. It is not my responsibility to handle what the customer has ordered in his pizza. Yes, I hate mushrooms in pizza. I prefer bacon. I would even suggest ordering bacon with lots of cheese over mushrooms. But if thats what the customer wants, it is not my responsibility to interfere with that. Or even know what toppings he ordered.
When MPAA gets close to our pizza business, we WILL stand up and fight in court. We WILL defend our hungry customers. We WILL defend the freedom to eat pizza and drink mountain dew while raiding the latest badass boss in World of Warcraft. They aren't going to take our freedom away!