ISP staff face MP3 lawsuit

NEWS The music industry has succeeded in having a director and an employee of an Internet service provider added to a court case against a Web site allegedly offering illegal music files.

In October last year, several major record labels sued Comcen for hosting the Web site www.mp3s4free.net, which it alleged offered copyright-infringing music files for download. In November, the record labels moved to have two directors of Comcen, Liam Bal and Peter Stevens, and employee Chris Takoushis included in the litigation, although Peter Stevens was later dropped after proving he was not involved in the day-to-day running of the ISP.

In a five minute session of the Federal Court in Sydney, Justice Brian Tamberlin has ruled that both Liam Bal and Chris Takoushis would be included in the litigation and will now have to defend themselves against charges of copyright infringement. The two men will meet with their lawyers next week to decide a course of action.

The move to include individuals involved with the ISP in the litigation is intended to scare employees of companies into reporting behaviour they believe to be illegal and the music industry's copyright enforcement arm, Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), has offered amnesty to any whistleblowers.

A second motion bought by Comcen to have an associated company, E-Talk Communications, removed from the litigation was rejected, and now both companies will face the music industry in court. The case is likely to resume later this month.

ZDNet Australia's James Pearce reported from Sydney. For more coverage on ZDNet Australia, click here.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in

Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

Will not be displayed with your comment

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Membership FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

sgardia

You are quite right. HDS has not been marketing their products well. USPV is miles ahead in terms of ease of use and technology on enterprise...

2 hours ago by sgardia on Will the SUN set on Hitachi Data Systems OEM relationship?
apexwm

Fedora is the same way as well. The yum update system uses "presto" which shrinks the amount of data needed for download. It's a great system....

13 hours ago by apexwm on Can you believe it - 2765 kB will be freed?
cybfor

Updated ID cards considered for 2012: [zdnet.co.uk] The government is considering introducing a new generation of ID... http://dlvr.it/KpBZ

cybfor

Google, Viacom trade blows in YouTube copyright spat: [zdnet.co.uk] Google and the US media giant Viacom have issued... http://dlvr.it/Knht

CIMITL

Be sure to include an audio option - eg. a beep tone - to intensify and reiterate the action. This will greatly benefit some consumers and give...

15 hours ago by CIMITL
DataSecurityUK

Data disposal is really important to get right. There are standards set by UK and US federal governments to ensure that data is kept secure. If...

16 hours ago by DataSecurityUK
chaycon1

Online Fiber Optic Certification Join a talented group of professionals, who are dedicated to Fiber Optic Networking technology. The online course...

18 hours ago by chaycon1 on BT launches 40Mbps fibre-based broadband
chaycon1

Online Fiber Optic Certification Join a talented group of professionals, who are dedicated to Fiber Optic Networking technology. The online course...

18 hours ago by chaycon1 on Google to build gigabit broadband to the home
J.A. Watson

Hi Dava, I'm glad to hear from you, and glad that you see things from the other side. I think that is the most important point of the whole...

18 hours ago by J.A. Watson on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest
dava4444

please please please please please please kill that spam bot.

18 hours ago by dava4444 on ZDNet UK: faster, smarter, still IT all the way
253chelisa253

hi

19 hours ago by 253chelisa253 on How security will look in 10 years
lezlow

it is only greedy[microsoft]?

20 hours ago by lezlow on Researchers break into BitLocker
dava4444

it didn't post the link it's 'Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta-1 First Look' on youtube :) Dava

21 hours ago by dava4444 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest
dava4444

Hi James I disagree, Ubuntu needs a GUI update and this one IMO is quite good. your pics show a low res. here's a high res. on YouTube* The...

22 hours ago by dava4444 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest
dava4444

Hi any news on the comment bot? knocking me back from my own blog is a bit cheeky lol *Mulder to Scully* "I think it has an agenda.." I know, I...

23 hours ago by dava4444 on ZDNet UK: faster, smarter, still IT all the way
benny boy

if you look at the Brentwood exchange on samknows it servers 21,000 residential propertiesm, Lowestoft serves 31,000! Come on BT sort yourselves...

23 hours ago by benny boy on BT fibre broadband coming to 69 more towns
pbreddit

[programming] H.264 - a sting in the tail http://reddit.com/bfu4q [zdnet.co.uk]

reddit

H.264 - a sting in the tail [programming] 13 points, submitted by zigzag [zdnet.co.uk] http://reddit.com/bfu4q

cybfor

Malware infects second Vodafone HTC phone: [zdnet.co.uk] A second Android-based HTC Magic from Vodafone has been... http://dlvr.it/KhKx

miyabi81

Chatter preview http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/application-development/2010/03/17/salesforce-opens-up-chatter-developer-preview-40088348/

Featured white papers

Achieving PCI Compliance for:Privileged Password Management & Remote Vendor Access

For multi-store outlets, including retail, banking, grocery, gas, hospitality, convenience stores and others, reducing (or avoiding) the cost of in-store system support and maintenance while maintaining compliance with PCI and other requirements has become a strategic challenge.

Download now

Web 2.0 Security Threats: How to Protect Your Enterprise Network

Speaker: Dr. Chenxi Wang, Principal Analyst, Security and Risk Management, Forrester Research, Inc. As Enterprises are increasingly connected to the Internet and as hard organizational boundaries are fast disappearing, security professionals are facing fresh challenges in Enterprise computing.

Download now

MindManager - Tutorial for New Users - Short

This tutorial is for new MindManager users and teaches you how to get started, by creating maps, reading maps and organizing your information.

Download now