The Australian Federation Against Copyright theft this afternoon confirmed it would attempt to regain some of the court costs it expended in its long-running legal case against internet service provider iiNet.
A spokesperson for the group — which represents a coalition of film and television studios — today confirmed multiple reports which said it would seek to recover those costs on issues which iiNet had conceded — such as on the issue of whether the ISP’s customers had used BitTorrent to share copyrighted material.
In its half-yearly financial results briefing today, iiNet said it had spent $3.8 million on the case ($2.7 million after tax). The judge in the case, Justice Cowdroy, had allocated the burden for iiNet’s costs onto AFACT.
AFACT has until 25 February to lodge an appeal for the case as a whole.
Cowdroy found on February 4 that iiNet did not authorise copyright infringement carried out by its customers, handing the ISP a significant victory in the closely watched case.
However, shortly after the appeal, AFACT said it was disappointed by the loss but said it did not believe the verdict was what the Federal Government had intended. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has called for ISPs and the content industry to work out a solution to the dilemma of content illegally being downloaded over the internet.