The Liability of "Passive" Content Hosts for Third-Party Content under Australian Copyright Law

Abstract

The richness of the internet owes much to the diversity of its content, the hosting of which is made possible by content hosts. Yet, not all that is diverse is legal. Given that copyright subsists in creative content, the digitisation of content has made its duplication, adaptation and publication on the internet extremely easy-resulting in a substantial proportion of illegal content infringing copyright. In the circumstances, copyright owners have increasingly turned to internet intermediaries, including content hosts, to protect their rights on the internet. While the provisions in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) that impute liability for authorising another s infringement provides the basis for the liability of content hosts for hosting third-party content that irifringe copyright, the various defences and safe harbour provisions available therein do not provide any "additional" protection to content hosts. This may have implications in the way content hosts operate, undermining/air use and free speech doctrines.