CANBERRA: The piracy and privacy issue has taken great popularity not only in Australia but round the world. According to the further details the Federal Court of Australia has ordered six ISPs to hand over the details of customers who allegedly downloaded copies of the movie Dallas Buyers Club without permission.
New South Wales district Judge Nye Perram ordered iiNet, Internode, Adam Internet, Wireband Networks, Dodo Services and Amnet Broadband to comply with copyright owners Dallas Buyers Club LLC and Voltage Pictures’s request for the information of more than 4,000 customers suspected of downloading copies of the movie.
The ISPs had argued that as only “a single sliver” of Dallas Buyers Club was shared from each IP address, “it was unlikely that any real case would be brought against the infringers”. They also aired concerns about privacy.
Disagreeing with the ISPs in his 7 April decision, Judge Perram said there was a “need to provide deterrence”.
“It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that damages of a sufficient size might be awarded … in an appropriately serious case in a bid to deter people from the file sharing of films.”
Judge Perram did agree with the ISPs concerns about their customers’ privacy, deciding to restrict use of the information to identifying those who used BitTorrent to download copies of the movie, suing for infringement, and carrying out negotiations to determine liability.
iiNet CEO David Buckingham hailed the restrictions as a win for the ISP’s customers.
He said: “The result is pleasingly what we expected. By going through the process we’ve been able to ensure that our customers will be treated fairly and won’t be subjected to the bullying that we have seen happen elsewhere. We’re very happy with Judge Perram’s judgement and his balanced approach to both the studio’s and consumers’ rights.”
During the course of the case, the ISPs had sought a delay in light of their deal with rights holders that will see them implement a cease and desist system to deter online copyright infringement.
The Communication Alliance has drafted and submitted a code of conduct to he Australian Communications and Media Authority. It is currently available for public consultation.
But Judge Perram rejected the argument, because the code of conduct is “only a draft”, is “incomplete”, and “there is no sensible chance of it coming into force in the next few months”.
Despite the rejection, iiNet said the in a statement that the ruling “is likely to be superseded” by the code.
The ruling is likely to be superseded by an industry code notice scheme being developed by the Communications Alliance in conjunction with rights holders.
Buckingham added: “We have worked closely with the Communications Alliance at the request of the federal government, to develop a code to educate people to the alternatives to piracy while protecting the privacy of our customers.”
