An appeal by the world’s largest film and television companies against internet service provider iiNet in a copyright case has been dismissed by the High Court.

A group of 34 international and Australian companies, including Warner Bros, Disney and the Seven Network, had alleged that iiNet had authorised the infringement Of their copyright when its customers downloaded movies and television programs.

But the High Court on Friday dismissed the appeal.

The High Court’s decision upholds an earlier ruling by the Federal Court in favour of iiNet.

The movie companies had argued that iiNet had the power to prevent its customers from infringing copyright by issuing warnings and suspending or terminating customer accounts.

But the High Court found that iiNet had no direct technical power to prevent its customers from using the BitTorrent file sharing system to infringe copyright.

“Rather, the extent of iiNet’s power to prevent its customers from infringing … copyright was limited to an indirect power to terminate its contractual relationship with its customers,” the court said.