AFACT fails to recoup iiNet court costs

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has failed in its attempt to recoup some of the costs of its recent copyright court loss against internet service provider (ISP) iiNet.

Earlier this year, Federal Court Justice Dennis Cowdroy awarded all court costs to iiNet when he found that the ISP did not authorise its customers' file sharing.

iiNet had reported that the total court costs incurred were $5.7 million.

Just weeks after the trial, AFACT stated its intention to retrieve costs for portions of the case which iiNet had conceded during court or which had been rejected by Cowdroy.

But today Justice Cowdroy ordered that AFACT "pay the costs of the respondent of and incidental to the proceedings including costs thrown away as a result of the abandonment by the applicants of their primary infringement claim against the respondent".

It was a decision welcomed by iiNet.

"We welcome the judge's decision," iiNet's spokesperson for the case, Tim Grau, said. "It's a sensible decision. It's consistent with [the judge's] original judgment."

AFACT's spokesperson for the case, Rebecca Tabakoff, said AFACT was "disappointed that the judge didn't make a deduction on costs for the points iiNet lost in the case".

Separate to its attempt to recoup costs, AFACT has also decided to appeal the judge's original decision.

Tabakoff said that AFACT was "looking forward to the appeal commencing in August" and said that AFACT believed that it had "strong grounds" for that appeal.