Online Piracy: Attempts to Obtain User Details from ISPs

Australian based technology reporting site Delimiter has reported on its website that Sydney-based law firm Marque Lawyers has issued letters to major Australian ISPs requesting they hand over details of users who have allegedly used "peer to peer" Internet file sharing platforms to pirate content owned by the firm’s clients.

Such a move it is claimed will reignite the debate about how such cases should be handled here in Australia. Delimiter reports that it is not yet clear who Marque Lawyer’s clients are but the firm has issued a number of Australian ISPs with letters requesting disclosure of the identities of users belonging to IP addresses linked with peer to peer file sharing activity.

Given the predictable response of the ISPs concerned, Delimiter reports "the firm has signalled that it is considering using the courts system to apply for ‘preliminary discovery’ orders to retrieve the information".

The use of discovery as a means to obtain user details of ISP customers suspected of committing online copyright infringement is  popular in the United States and has increased in recent years. Essentially it operates to allow copyright owners to seek the court's assistance to force ISPs to release user details so that those users and not the ISP itself can be prosecuted or otherwise dealt with by content owners.

As is reported by Delimiter the potential use of discovery as a  legal mechanism to locate and prosecute alleged Internet pirates was first raised during the long-running court battle between ISP iiNet and the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft and associated film and TV interests. However, the judgements in the iiNet cases all affirmed the view that iiNet had not authorised its customers to infringe copyright online and appeared to give ISPs some legal protection against being held responsible for the behaviour of their users.

The interesting point however, is that some observe that the iiNet cases have also left the possibility alive of copyright owners seeking to act more directly against alleged Australian Internet pirates assuming they succeed in trying to identify them.

In the US, UK, Europe, South Korea and New Zealand, a co-operative system between content owners and ISPs already operating. Australia, however, is still to develop policies that protect copyright owners and ensure the viability of content creation industries in terms of "peer to peer" file downloading.

Source:

• Mass piracy lawsuits are back in Australia: Law firm targets end users’ details (Delimiter)

• Irony: Anti-piracy law firm previously argued against targeting users (Delimiter)

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