Loyal Listener Lyndal has outdone herself with bringing this item to our attention:
A full bench of the Federal Court yesterday upheld an earlier ruling that Stephen Cooper, the operator of mp3s4free.net, as well as the internet service provider that hosted the website, were guilty of authorising copyright infringement because they provided a search engine through which a user could illegally download MP3 files. The website did not directly host any copyright-protected music, but the court held that simply providing links to the material effectively authorised copyright infringement. —Sydney Morning Herald
via BoingBoing
3 Comments
guywithoutaname says:
Thats irrational. Hyperlinking is not a crime.
Amoranthus says:
It’s a crime now.
It’s not just hyperlinking. People should read the news articles more carefully.
Remember, everything on the Net has an implicit copyright.
That’s not just every website, but every webpage.
Under the Cooper ruling, explicit permission must be obtained to link to a webpage, not just a website.
And more, the ISP who provides hosting is also guilty of copyright infringement. That means you are exposing Wordpress (or whatever hosting you’ve set up Wordpress) to lawsuits and sizeable fines.
Let’s see, the minimum fine is an on the spot $1320.00. The maximum is $13,200 and five years in jail. – How may links do you have over there?
Amoranthus says:
Oh, I’m sorry I wasn’t specific.
That’s $1320.00 for each instance.