RIP news story. You were my one true friend.
In one of the most disturbing blows in favor of the recording industry, a group of RIAA companies have won a lawsuit in Australia against a webmaster (along with his ISP, one of its technicians, as well as its parent company and director) for their contribution to music piracy: hyperlinking.
Stephen Cooper, operator of the mp3s4free Web site, was found guilty of copyright infringement by Federal Court Justice Brian Tamberlin.
Although Cooper didn't host pirated recordings per se, the court found he breached the law by creating hyperlinks to sites that had infringing sound recordings.
...
In October 2003, the record companies, which included Universal Music, Sony, Warner and EMI, alleged that Cooper cooperated with [Comcen/E-Talk Communcations director Liam Bal] and [Comcen technician Chris Takoushis] to increase traffic to the ISP, and aide advertising revenue.
Takoushis echoed Bal's statements that they were ignorant of the practices of Cooper's web site and they did not unduly benefit from the site's traffic.
"When I assist a site owner with some aspect of their site, I cannot ever recall having actually had to visit their site in order to deal with the matter. Rather, I visit the server and look at the codes. It is never a question of looking at the physical aspects of the site. Once I have made amendments to the codes, I notify the site owner,"
...
"The two circumstances in which there possibly may be some commercial benefit for an ISP in the case of mp3s4free is when a person who has a Comcen e-mail account downloads a file through the Web site and they have exceeded their monthly download allowance which would generate a small additional fee; or where a person visiting the Web site clicked on the Comcen banner and then decided to start a Comcen e-mail account," Takoushis said in his affidavit.
But no one was buying it.
"The verdict showed that employees of ISPs who engage in piracy can be seen in the eyes of the court as guilty," [Music Industry Piracy Investigations general manager Michael Kerin] said.
So whatever you do, don't make it possible for someone to show someone else how to commit a crime in Australia.
Hat tip: Slashdot
-TM