Copyright Trolls Invading Australia

from the next-on-the-list dept

Mon, Oct 3rd 2011 11:04pm — Mike Masnick

It appears that the plague of copyright trolls is moving down under to Australia. There's really not much of a surprise here. It's yet another example of some lawyers finding an opportunity to abuse copyright law to shake people down by offering "settlement fees" that are less than the cost of going to court. In the UK, such plans have been pretty harshly beat back, but they continue to spread elsewhere. In this case, it's an operation called Movie Rights Group, and it's planning to sue an awful lot of folks. Of course, whether or not it can actually get anyone to pay up is another story.

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Filed Under: australia, copyright, copyright trolls

14 Comments

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The eejit (profile), 3 Oct 2011 @ 10:58pm

Bet they couldn't wait for aCTA to be signed. Fucking parasites.
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Anthony, 3 Oct 2011 @ 11:59pm

Not me
My ISP is one of several of the big ones that refuse to pass the letters they receive from studios/record labels on. So I won't be getting letters in the mail.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2011 @ 12:27am

"and it's planning to sue an awful lot of folks."

I think this is the best way to get the general public more aware and concerned about the issue and the problems that IP is causing. If we want to spread general awareness, what better way than this? Suing 100 people hardly raises enough public awareness for anything to get done, but suing hundreds of thousands of people will raise a lot more public awareness.

Think telemarketers, but only worse. Think do not call list. Telemarketer protesters were marching congress by the millions to force it to pass Do Not Call List laws and Congress responded very quickly, despite the heavy industry lobbying against it. Even the mainstream media practically had no choice but to be almost supportive of the bill. This was before the Internet was anything close to as well used as it is now.

What these people are doing is even worse. It spells class action lawsuit all over it. People have raised class action lawsuits for much smaller, pettier issues. This could easily create even a larger class action lawsuit and it could start creating more public awareness about our broken IP system regardless of the short term outcome.
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G Thompson (profile), 4 Oct 2011 @ 1:08am

Well I suspect myself and a whole lot of other Australians that I know in the Legal and Digital Forensics professions will be doing a lot of pro bono and even volunteer work to get rid of this fraudulent practice.

I hope Loyds Solicitors in QLD have expertise in Digital Evidence, the TIA (1979) [oh that one is a doozy], the TPA [and not just s52], and of course numerous things such as undue influence, fraud, and lets not forget Anti-Spam laws and our uniform defamation act too.

Oh and I hope they are explaining to their clients that their clients are very much in problematic areas if they are not explaining to the ISPs they are contacting (and maybe threatening) that the ISP's could also be not immune under Agency laws either.

Let the games begin I say.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2011 @ 3:49am

Re: Not me
@Anthony

Which ISPs are those? I'm guessing TPG (my ISP) isn't one of them?

Anyway, these mass mailer guys never risk fights in court, so if you stand up to them you'll be ok...
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2011 @ 4:48am

Re:
Agreed. The trolls are in for a whole world of hurt right here in little old Oz.
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abc gum, 4 Oct 2011 @ 4:53am

... and the cancer spreads
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Nick Coghlan (profile), 4 Oct 2011 @ 4:54am

Missing the big hammer
One of the things missing from the mass legal extortion strategy here in Australia is the threat of massive statutory damages, so the costs of going to court aren't as prohibitive for the prospective defendants (nor are the results as profitable for the plaintiffs).

Of course, a legal battle isn't going to be fun for any reason, so they may still get some folks to pony up the cash to make them go away.
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Richard (profile), 4 Oct 2011 @ 4:54am

Re: Re:
Looking at the history of ACS Law and Davenport Lyons in the UK I'm surprised anyone iis still trying this idea.
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Richard (profile), 4 Oct 2011 @ 4:56am

Re: Missing the big hammer
they may still get some folks to pony up the cash to make them go away.

Trouble is - it doesn't make them go away - it marks you out as a soft touch - people need to be aware of this - DON'T GIVE THEM MONEY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
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demarchist (profile), 4 Oct 2011 @ 11:39pm

Re:
They did wait for ACTA - we signed it on saturday
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John in Brisbane, 5 Oct 2011 @ 12:23am

The recording and movie industries backed off on this in the US after a string of law cases that made them look pretty bad. I imagine that the same thing will happen here. Some single mum will get dragged through the courts and financially ruined and it will be a PR disaster.
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G Thompson (profile), 5 Oct 2011 @ 1:58am

Re: Re:
yes it was signed on Saturday, but it still needs to be ratified by both parliament and the senate before it becomes a binding treaty. Just because the Labour party signed the document means squat under Australian law until both houses analyse, debate, and then maybe pass it.
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demarchist (profile), 5 Oct 2011 @ 2:51am

Re: Re: Re:
And they're not going to pass it? Come on, this was bought and paid for long ago. I'd like to believe there would be some analysis and debate, but they are all working for the same team.
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