Music industry makes key gain in AU copyright case

Federal Court Justice Brian Tamberlin this morning ordered the Universities of Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania to allow the music industry access to the infrastructure to seek information regarding alleged breaches of copyright, such as file-sharing, by University staff or students.

The music industry had been seeking access to information on the Universities' network it claims contains evidence of copyright infringement, but the Universities refused, citing privacy concerns. Justice Tamberlin previously stated he would order the Universities to hand over the information, but had allowed time for both parties to provide arguments appealing the decision.

"The Universities must allow our forensic expert unfettered access," Michael Speck, manager of Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) told ZDNet Australia  . "We'll be communicating with the Universities as soon as we can to get the process underway."

"Hopefully the delay hasn't tainted or dissipated the evidence," said Speck. "We'll be relying on the evidence to take action against the persons responsible for the infringement."

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1. I think the copyright laws relating to music should bexchanged so a indvidual could make one copy of aaudio CDfor personal-same aswith software. Anonymous -- 19/07/03

   I think the copyright laws relating to music should bexchanged so a indvidual could make one copy of aaudio CDfor personal-same aswith software.

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2. As a Sys Admin with potential involvement in this battle with the Music companies, I have conficting attitudes. On the one hand I'd like to stamp out file-sharing on our networks, as it's a bandwidth hog and a clear abuse of university resources Anonymous -- 21/07/03

   As a Sys Admin with potential involvement in this battle with the Music companies, I have conficting attitudes.
   
   On the one hand I'd like to stamp out file-sharing on our networks, as it's a bandwidth hog and a clear abuse of university resources. Any individual who persisted in doing it knowing the court case was proceeding and against all warnings from the university that it was unacceptable behavious, deserves to be fired for sheer stupidity alone.
   
   On the other hand, in my opinion the music industry represent some of the worst kind of corporate scum, with a long track record of making enormous profits at BOTH consumers AND musicans expense. It's difficult to feel much sympathy for them. They're losing money and they're hurting and they're looking for someone else to hurt - the Universities are just an easy target.
   
   Their case has got very little to do with protecting musicians (not withstanding the music industry statements to the contrary).

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