US Embassy Sanctioned Lawsuit Against Aussie ISP iiNet

New submitter Elenor writes with this story (excerpted) from TorrentFreak, another nugget gleaned from the cables made public by WikiLeaks: "The Canberra Wikileaks cables have revealed that the U.S. Embassy sanctioned a conspiracy by Hollywood studios to target Australian communications company iiNet through the local court-system, with the aim of establishing a binding common-law precedent which would make ISPs responsible for the unauthorised file-sharing of their customers. Both the location, Australia, and the target, iiNet, were carefully selected. A precedent set in Australia would be influential in countries with comparable legal systems such as Canada, India, New Zealand and Great Britain. Australian telecommunications giant Telstra was judged too large for the purposes of the attack. Owing to its smaller size and more limited resources, iiNet was gauged the perfect candidate." The cable describes no overt action on the part of the American embassy, but the wording is telling: "Mike Ellis, the Singapore-based President for Asia Pacific of the Motion Picture Association ... said MPAA did not see any role for Embassy at this time, but wanted to keep us informed."

Comments

Re:Wow. Get a load of that.

[Anonymous Coward]

The U.S. embassy did not actually play a role in this, and at no point in the cable do they say that they actually support this case, or plan on offering the MPAA any assistance. All they do was report back to Washington what the MPAA was up to, say they'd keep watch on how it developed. Anyway you don't have to take my word from it, here's the complete cable.

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 001197

SIPDIS

STATE PLEASE PASS USTR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/01/2018
TAGS: KIPR ECPS ECON ETRD AS
SUBJECT: FILM/TV INDUSTRY FILES COPYRIGHT CASE AGAINST
AUSSIE ISP

REF: CANBERRA 1173 (NOTAL)

Classified By: AMBASSADOR ROBERT D. MCCALLUM JR, REASON 1.4 (B, D)

1. (C) Summary: On November 20 several media companies filed
legal action against Australia's #3 internet service provider
(ISP) iiNet, seeking a ruling that iiNet has infringed
copyright by not taking reasonable steps to prevent
unauthorized use of films and TV programs by its customers.
This is the first such case filed in Australia. The case was
filed by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft
(AFACT) on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA) and its international affiliate, the Motion
Picture Association (MPA), but does not want that fact to be
broadcasted. Initial reactions support MPAA's claim that it
has a strong legal case. End Summary.

A NEW LEGAL CHALLENGE AGAINST PIRACY AIMS AT ISP

2. (U) On November 20 the Australian Federation Against
Copyright Theft (AFACT) announced that several media firms
had filed a case in the Federal Court of Australia against
iiNet, Australia's third largest ISP, for "failing to take
reasonable steps, including enforcing its own terms and
conditions, to prevent known unauthorised use of copies of
the companies' films and TV programs by iiNet's customers via
its network." The action was filed by Village Roadshow (an
Australian company that produces and distributes movies and
DVDs, among other activities), Universal Pictures, Warner
Brothers Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures
Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Disney
Enterprises, and the Seven Network (one of Australia's three
major over-the-air television networks and a licensee of some
of the infringed works). Proceedings will be back before the
court on December 17; a ruling is unlikely before the end of
2009.

3. (U) This is the first such case to be filed in Australian
courts. iiNet claims that it is protected by the "safe
harbor" provisions of the Copyright Act - i.e., ISPs are
merely common carriers of traffic, so the dispute is between
copyright owners and violators. iiNet said in its media
release response that it routinely turns over to the police
evidence of piracy on its network.

THE REST OF THE STORY

4. (C) Despite the lead role of AFACT and the inclusion of
Australian companies Village Roadshow and the Seven Network,
this is an MPAA/American studios production. Mike Ellis, the
Singapore-based President for Asia Pacific of the Motion
Picture Association, briefed Ambassador on the filing on
November 26. Ellis confirmed that MPAA was the mover behind
AFACT's case (AFACT is essentially MPAA's Australian
subcontractor; MPAA/MPA have no independent, formal presence
here), acting on behalf of the six American studios involved.
MPAA prefers that its leading role not be made public.
AFACT and MPAA worked hard to get Village Roadshow and the
Seven Network to agree to be the public Australian faces on
the case to make it clear there are Australian equities at
stake, and this isn't just Hollywood "bullying some poor
little Australian ISP."

5. (C) Why iiNet? Ellis said they were the right target on
several levels. First, they are big enough to be important -
iiNet is the third largest ISP in Australia. (Telstra,
owners of top Australian ISP BigPond which has about half of
the market, are t