iiNet defends free content offer in Federal Court copyright case

iiNet managing director Michael Malone has defended the company’s “Freezone” downloading service in the Federal Court, saying it is not responsible for encouraging downloads of material that infringes on copyright laws.

The defense came on the thirteenth day of the case between the company and the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, which if successful has significant ramifications for the way in which ISPs deal with digital pirates.

iiNet’s Freezone contains a number of sites and servers made available to customers that offers downloads of products and services, such as songs through Apple iTunes, without using up any of the user’s allotted bandwidth quota.

Malone, who took the stand yesterday for a third consecutive day, defended Freezone after AFACT barrister Tony Bannon questioned that “the Freezone is highly attractive to a person interested in maximising the bandwidth available to them to engage in illegal downloading”.

“I don’t believe that to be true,” Malone said, adding the Freezone attracts a “different type of segment or person”.

After being questioned about whether users require available bandwidth to use the Freezone site, Malone said the Freezone offers an “alternative to downloading something illegal”.

“You’re promoting content on a basis which makes it attractive for users to acquire your plans and quotas. And part of that attraction is [watching] Freezone [content] frees up quota [for other activities],” Bannon said. “[That freed up quota] can be used for illegal downloading of my client’s films, wouldn’t you agree?”

“It can be, yes,” Malone said.

The discussion comes after an incident earlier in the case, where iiNet counsel Richard Cobden questioned the counsel of Village Roadshow, which is involved with AFACT, about whether the presence of legally available copyrighted material helped reduce piracy.

It was revealed last month that Village Roadshow had signed a deal to distribute content to customers through iiNet’s Freezone site.

Meanwhile, an attempt by AFACT counsel Tony Bannon to demonstrate how torrent site Pirate Bay failed when it was discovered the Federal Court’s networks had blocked the site.

Bannon attempted to show the site as a demonstration of how a person downloading illegal material would go about finding copyrighted files. After using two separate computers, it was found the court’s network had blocked access to the site.

“It is blocked I’m afraid, Mr Bannon,” Justice Cowdroy said. “It can be unblocked for tomorrow I’m told.”

The case continues today, with Malone expected to take the stand for the final time.