Australian Internet service provider Swiftel Communications was raided early March 10 by investigators for Australia’s music industry, which said the Swiftel raid was due to the ISP being suspected of using BitTorrent’s file-swapping technology to allow “hundreds of thousands” of songs and video and film clips to be swapped by its customers.
The Australian Record Industry Association sent investigators with its Music Industry Piracy Investigations arm to Swiftel, in raids MIPI general manager Michael Speck called “a new and important development in our fight against Internet music piracy.”
Speck told Australian media that Swiftel used BitTorrent “to link infringers to music clips and sound recordings. We believe hundreds of thousands of downloads have been conducted during the last year in breach of copyright laws.” He also said the MIPI investigators seized digital evidence tied to Web pages and Internet transactions “consisting of both illegal sound recordings and illegal video clips.”
The MIPI was able to mount the Swiftel raid under what Australian civil law calls Anton Piller orders, which are used strictly in civil litigation and involve no police. The MIPI used Piller orders in 2004 to raid offices and homes in Sydney believed tied to the KaZaA peer-to-peer network, which is now involved in a litigation trial expected to finish later in March.
KaZaA and owner Sharman Networks maintain they are not responsible for what people using their program do, but the Australian music industry wants KaZaA held accountable for billions of copyrighted files being swapped illegally each month, according to its estimates.
Speck vowed that Australia’s music industry would continue the legal battle against peer-to-peer and to protect its copyrights, “whether it’s on the Internet or elsewhere. We will continue to act against ISPs who we believe are set up as vehicles for piracy." Swiftel has yet to comment on the MIPI raid.
