After a 14-month battle, the Federal Court found that iiNet did not authorise copyright infringement or have the power to prevent the infringements occurring.

The landmark case attracted worldwide attention as content owners and internet users watched closely to see whether ISPs would be forced to do more to prevent their users from downloading content illegally, through file-sharing.

The Hollywood studios - including Roadshow Films, Warner Bros and Twentieth Century Fox - alleged that subscribers, or other users of iiNet, used peer-to-peer software (BitTorrent) and iiNet's internet facilities to download copies of Roadshow's films.

They claimed that those films were made available from iiNet users' computers and shared via iiNet's facilities, resulting in an infringement of copyright.