The verdict is out in the case of numerous media/entertainment companies versus an ISP over in australia.

The entertainment companies wanted a ruling that an ISP is responsible for the actions of their customers - so they sued an ISP for "allowing copyright infringement to occur".

Now, we can't have that. If someone breaks copyright then they should be responsible for their own actions, not their ISP, not the mail service, not the maker of the fax machine, not the people who built a photo sharing website.

Commonsense prevailed, and the judge ruled in favour of the ISP. The entertainment companies now must pay the ISPs legal costs.

I've picked some of that commonsense from within the judge's ruling:

In summary, in this proceeding, the key question is: Did iiNet authorise copyright infringement? The Court answers such question in the negative for three reasons: first because the copyright infringements occurred as a result of the use of the BitTorrent system, not the user of the internet, and the respondent did not create and does not control the BitTorrent system; second because the respondent did not have a relevant power to prevent those infringements occurring; and third because the respondent did not sanction, approve or countenance copyright infringement.

On the incorrect use of the word "theft" to describe copyright infringment:

NZFACT backdown welcome – InternetNZ

Media release – for immediate release, 16 June 2009

InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) has today asserted that NZFACT is
sowing confusion regarding recent moves by the French Government to
respond to an adverse judicial ruling on copyright issues.

The French Government, responding to the decision by the Constitutional
Council to strike out termination of Internet accounts as a possible
remedy in copyright law, has said that it will continue to implement the
notices regime set out in the law.

“The upshot of the Council’s decision is that termination is off the
table in France,” says Davidson.

“NZFACT’s comment today that they welcome the French Government’s
approach is either an attempt to find support for their approach to
termination where none exists, or alternatively can be seen as a
backdown on their previous strong support for termination,” says
Executive Director Keith Davidson.

“Termination is a disproportionate and wrong remedy that won’t deal with
problems of infringement by Internet users. NZFACT and other rights
holder organisations need to accept that France is no longer proceeding
on that path.

“Neither should New Zealand,” says Davidson.

“We continue to advocate for a notice-and-notice system that deals with
the problem effectively, and will be releasing further detail around
this in the next couple of weeks,” concludes Davidson.

ENDS

Internet NZ have signed on as a key sponsor of the upcoming Linux & opensource conference (the conference usually known as linux.conf.au)

This is slightly old news, but worth repeating
http://blog.internetnz.net.nz/?p=265

The annual Linux.conf.au conference will be held in January 2010 in Wellington - the second time it has been held in New Zealand. It will bring together local and international open source practitioners who contribute to the Linux operating system and numerous other open source projects. Linux creator Linus Torvalds regularly attends this event.

InternetNZ Executive Director Keith Davidson says open source has played, and continues to play, a key role in achieving InternetNZ’s vision of an open and uncaptureable Internet.

“Every New Zealander that uses the Internet is an open source user. It’s the backbone of almost everything business and government does these days. If you want to get close to the people that have built the core technology of the 21st century, you go to conferences like LCA2010. I’m thrilled it is being held right on our doorstep.”

“It is particularly timely that LCA2010 is being held in Wellington. Government agencies have been caught up in something of a technical monoculture, leading to missed opportunity and detachment from key transformations that the Internet has enabled. Any IT staff in the public sector unfamiliar with open source would get a huge boost talking with technical folk that have enjoyed the freedom of unfettered global collaboration.”