Ever since the Dallas Buyers Club debacle last year, Australia has watched carefully how movie piracy laws will develop. That development recently came to a head when the Federal Court of Australia handed down a landmark decision on movie piracy/copyright law.
The Dallas Buyers Club case was an attempt by the owners of that film to directly sue Australians who had illegally downloaded the movie in Australia. In order to do that the owners of the film had to go to Australian internet service providers (ISPS) to obtain their customers’ details. When the ISPs said no, the owners attempted to force that information out of them through the Courts. Luckily for Australians’ privacy in general the Court said they would not order ISPs to hand over confidential customer information.
However with this new decision the owners of films have now forced ISPs to block their customers from accessing the websites from which they can illegally download movies.
This represents a far more practical approach while ensuring that Australians private and confidential information is not potentially jeopardised, whilst assisting the intellectual property rights of the entertainment industry.
If you have further questions, please contact us at frank@franklaw.com.au.
This is not legal advice.