The Australian Screen Association (ASA) (formerly known as Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft) is an anti-piracy lobby group that was established in 2004. Its aim is to protect the film and television industry and retailers from what it claims are adverse impacts of

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...

in Australia. The Australian Screen Association is affiliated with the United Kingdom organisation,

Federation Against Copyright Theft The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) is an organisation established in 1983 to protect and represent the interests of its members' intellectual property (IP). FACT also investigates fraud and cybercrime, and provides global due diligenc ...

and the United States organisation

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

. ASA actively works to reduce

camcorder A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video camera, video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right s ...

recording of films screened in cinemas. It is also dedicated to educating people about its own view of copyright infringement. In mid-2011, the Pirate Party Australia accused AFACT of intimidating ISPs after they threatened unspecified actions if they didn't engage with the organisation in talks on file-sharing. A classified

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

cable revealed that AFACT was acting as the

's Australian subcontractor and that the MPAA wanted to avoid the view that the court case was about Hollywood trying to bully an Australian ISP.

Members

The organisation comprises

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, and ...

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Roadshow Entertainment Roadshow Entertainment (formerly known as Roadshow Home Video from 1982–1993) is an Australian home video, production and distribution company that is a division of Village Roadshow (formerly Roadshow Home Video and Roadshow Entertainment) ...

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acq ...

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

and the

Court case

The organisation brought a lawsuit to the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

against Australian internet service provider,

iiNet iiNet Limited is an Australian internet service provider that sells NBN plans and services on its ULTRA Broadband Cable, FTTB and VDSL2 networks. It was acquired by TPG Telecom in July 2020. iiNet was acquired by TPG in September 2015 for $ ...

, on 20 November 2008, alleging that iiNet had authorised copyright infringement on its network. AFACT had used Dtecnet, a company that tracks online copyright infringement to discover users sharing copyrighted content through BitTorrent. The Federal Court decision cleared iiNet on 4 February 2010. Justice Cowdroy found that "mere provision of access to internet is not the means to infringement". AFACT lost its appeal to the Federal Court on 24 February 2011. It was ordered to pay iiNet's legal bills. AFACT lost a further appeal to the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established following passage of the ''Judiciary Act 1903''. It ...

on 20 April 2012.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.screenassociation.com.au/ Internet in Australia Television in Australia Organizations established in 2004 2004 establishments in Australia Copyright enforcement companies Information technology organizations based in Oceania

Members

Court case

See also

References

External links