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Australian Court Questions Search Engine Actions

An Australian Federal Court raised some serious questions regarding the legal situation of search companies in relation to copyright infringement. The court said that web links to copyrighted-protected content makes the site responsible in the eyes of the Australian law. This means, that if a person uses a search engine to access other sites that contain copyrighted material, then the search engine shares the legal responsibility of that person`s actions.

Under the Australian law, if an Australian citizen is breaking the law by consuming copyrighted content without consent, and he gained access to that content using a search engine, then the search engine is liable. The whole thing began when the court evaluated a recent case of copyright infringement and also found the internet service provider responsible. Comcen, the ISP, hosted a site that offered illegal content for download, and the Australian court found it guilty under the local law.

The internet service provider said for its defense that by hosting such sites, they are doing the same thing as search engine do when referring users to site with forbidden content. The Australian court noted that Google`s actions, for instance, has yet to be tested under the Australian law, and possibility, search engines will be found legally liable if such a case will be taken into account. This is not the first time that Australian courts are trying to claim jurisdiction on U.S-website. The Australians believe that if Australians are able to access the information online, then the people behind it should answer to the Australian law.