Linking To Unauthorized MP3s Illegal In Australia

Legal Issues

from the so-much-for-search-engines dept

Earlier this year, we pointed to a situation in Norway, where a person who simply created a website with links to unauthorized copies of mp3 files was fined for doing so. Considering that Google can be used to find links to unauthorized copies of mp3 files as well, it certainly sounded like such a ruling opened up all search engines to quite a bit of legal liability. Apparently, it’s not just in Norway that this problem occurs. Down in Australia, following up on a case we first wrote about two years ago, a judge has also decided that linking to unauthorized copies of mp3 files is illegal. In this situation, it looks like the judge is using similar reasoning to the US Supreme Court in the recent Grokster decision. Because the guy in question was using the links page to get more attention for his ISP, he’s seen as somehow inducing people to infringe on copyrights. Of course, the real question is why isn’t the industry going after the people actually sharing these files, as they are the ones actually breaking the law.