An expert says a High Court ruling on Internet provider iiNet may mean more householders are sued for infringing copyright.
The High Court decided that iiNet - as an Internet provider - was not responsible for authorising illegal film downloads by some of its users.
To explain more about the infringement of copyright law by internet users, SBS talked to Associate Professor David Brennan from the University of Melbourne.
Q: What impact will this court decision have domestically and internationally on the film industry?
A: There might be more legal attention given to suing householders who infringe copyright but more generally, because film industries will be more exposed I predict that legislative reforms may follow but not anytime soon.
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The film and TV industries here in Australia will consolidate their efforts in lobbying government to tighten copyright laws, or even create new laws like those in France.
If you look at this decision in an international context, United States law is quite similar in effect to what the Australian High Court has decided here.
Q: Will this affect other copyright dependent industries such as the music industry?
A: The music industry has already fought some high profile cases against more centralised peer-to-peer systems.
Right now it is the film industry which is trying to find a strategy to deal with unlawful distribution.
More generally both film and music industries share a common interest and it is notable that a collecting society for composers (APRA) joined the action against iiNet.
Q: What is the best way to increase the production of fresh content?
A: In my view internet service providers (ISPs) should have some copyright obligations and responsibilities if we want to maintain the copyright system.
Without those, ISPs have no incentive to be good copyright citizens and many incentives to be bad ones.
Q: What do you mean by 'good copyright citizen'?
A: A good copyright citizen is one whose business model does not entail profiting from the infringing acts of others.
I would hold up Apple as an example of a good copyright citizen in this regard.
