Everyone and his dog (e.g. and bbc) is commenting on this so Geeklawyer won’t bark as well. Other than to point out the feature of the judgement he worries most about.
Justice Wilcox has ordered that a filtering system, to be agreed between the parties, must be implemented. This does, as a matter of practicalities, have the potential to become litigation trench warfare, with the parties eternally arguing about what is appropriate. Far far worse, it gets the courts into the business of mandating technology in digital products. Nothing is more bowel clenching to technology innovators than the prospect of litigation every time they try to invent something new, or than the thought that they will have to justify it before a judge.
I can only imagine the movie studios regard this element of the judgement as being a gift from God. What legislatures worldwide and more sensible judges have stepped carefully away from, Justice Wilcox has stomped into with all the subtlety one expects of Australians. Now the studios will be leveraging this judgement in the US and Europe to try & get other courts to do the same. One clodhopping idiot judge has, in-between his day job of shearing sheep and wresting crocs, put the potential of digital technology at peril by handing it to those with a vested interest in destroying it.
I’m not going to use cliched words like “chilling effect” but it’s not a good result and it didn’t have to be.
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