In a YouTube video posted today, Telstra Media and former BigPond head Justin Milne has broadly backed iiNet's views on policing copyright violations, saying that ISPs should not be held responsible for what their users chose to do.
iiNet has become embroiled in court action started by film studios, which are seeking court orders to stop the ISP from allowing its users to download pirated films over its network.
"I think networks shouldn't be responsible for the use of their networks when it comes to illegal things, for exactly the same reason that we don't hold Australia Post responsible for delivering a defamatory letter," Milne said.
Despite this view, he said that Telstra did not support illegal downloading and in fact had invested tens of millions in a legal download platform, BigPond Movies. "We'd much prefer them to buy it from us of course," he said.
Milne believed there were remedies within the law to deal with such infringements, but that if the government felt changes were needed, it should go through the process under the "full glare of democracy".
Thes court case instigated by the film industry was trying to "bypass democracy and just get a sort of a sweep out deal done with ISPs" the executive said, which he did not condone.
Milne said that Telstra hadn't been contacted by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft in its crackdown on ISPs whose customers were infringing copyright, but said that it did receive many notifications, which it forwarded on to the law.
It's rare that I ever agree with Justin Milne or Telstra but I also support iiNet. ISPs are no more responsible for copyright infringements by their subscribers than petrol companies are responsible for people doing burnouts and drag racing.
People have to go back to taking responsibility for their own actions but at the same time record companies need to have definite proof that their music is being ripped by Internet users. At the moment they want to be judge, jury, executioner and grave digger all rolled into one. Additionally they should be going after the people serving the software, not the ones downloading - the crimes the distributing parties are committing are far greater in weight.