[LINK] More about iiNet suit - legal opinion on their side it seems

[Rick Welykochy]

Michael Still wrote:

> So, they forward infringement notices. That seems fair enough. Do they 
> disclose private information like the customer's name and address to the 
> rights holders? That sort of thing should take a court order to get.

They cannot do thaIANAL, but it would be illegal unless under order of the court.

Exetel is simply covering their butt. They do this on two fronts.

(A) without batting an eye, they will remove any multimedia
     content (audio and video) from their customer websites unless the customer
     submits in writing a declaration that they own or have the rights to that
     content;

(B) issue suspension and possible disconnection notices if the customer
     is found to be sharing copyright content.

More discussion on this here:

http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=288&t=29204&p=223418&hilit=p2p+suspension

*OR*

http://tinyurl.com/55pcrh

My 2.2 c worth:

(A) this is no way to treat your customers;

(B) they are cowards (viz. not taking on Telstra) and greedy money mongers;

(C) they have an inflexible business model;

(D) <RANT>
     their money-backed lobbying efforts originating in the USA to change
     a tort into a crime is immoral at best; they now have undue influence over
     the legal process, the police and the judiciary; they are corrupting and
     perverting our legal system for the sole purpose of making fast $$$$; and finally,
     they have unduly and unfairly influenced the terms of the AUSFTA, so that
     we are now "harmonising" our own (SOVEREIGN!) laws to cater to their greed
     in the USA. "Free trade" ... my arse! </RANT>

Until (C) changes, their customers will take whatever means they can do
use digital technology to obtain the content they want.

As an aside, the neo-con (as in confidence trick) of economic rationalisation
had a very short lifespan. Their efforts at fiddling the books and making
pantomine reforms in an effort for instant good-lucking but phony results are
now seen for what they really are. We see the results in the global economic
crisis we are now living through. And are the neo-cons that have been in power
to preside over this mess taking any blam? Definitely not. No-one is. I wonder
why that is?

Similarly with another branch of the same economic rhetoric: "globalisation". It
is fast being uncovered as a sham and a neo-con that is stripping funds from
third world countries and backwaters like this place (!) and funneling them into
the coffers of the powerful global multi-nationals. Witness ahow many products
and services in Aussieland have been taken over by foreign interest over the
past twenty years. And further more how many local industries have either gone
offshore or simply shutdown in the face of the wonders of "globalisation".

The lobbying and harmonisation actions of the film and music industries are just
one more putrid manifestation of this blight on the world economic stage.

cheers
rickw


-- 
_________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

Tis the dream of each programmer before his life is done,
To write three lines of APL and make the damn thing run.