Australian Court Says Dallas Buyers Club Copyright Trolling May Proceed, With Some Caveats
from the the-details-will-matter dept
Late last year, we noted that Australian ISP iiNet -- well-known for pushing back against anti-consumer practices in both surveillance and copyright enforcement -- had decided to go to court to fight a copyright trolling attempt by Voltage Pictures, the Hollywood studio behind Dallas Buyers Club. Voltage Pictures has also made a name for itself as a major copyright troll, shaking down people around the globe and loudly insulting anyone who questions the strategy.As iiNet explained at the time, it had no problem with going after copyright infringers, but it wasn't comfortable with the copyright trolling practice of "speculative invoicing" -- which is the nice term for shaking people down by sending them an invoice and telling them the only way to avoid a lawsuit is to pay up. iiNet basically said that it would turn over user information only if ordered by a court, which is the proper response. Even though, during the course of the court case iiNet raised serious concerns about Voltage Pictures' "expert" Daniel Macek (a name you may recognize as also being a key figure in Malibu Media's copyright trolling game via a variety of shell companies), the court has now said that iiNet has to turn over the info.
However, the court appears to recognize at least some of how copyright trolling works, and says that the shakedown letters sent to iiNet subscribers must "first be submitted [to the court] for approval." It remains to be seen what the court will approve concerning such letters, but at the very least, hopefully this will prevent the aggressive shakedown actions seen concerning Dallas Buyers Club/Voltage Pictures in other countries.
Also, it's worth noting that last month, another Australian ISP, TPG, announced plans to acquire iiNet (subject to regulatory review), leading many to (reasonably) wonder if iiNet was going to continue its pro-subscriber advocacy in the future. Given the strong efforts made by iiNet over the years to stand up for the rights of its customers, it would be a shame to see the new company turn into yet another ISP with little concern for its subscribers.
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Filed Under: austalia, copyright, copyright trolling, dallas buyers club, daniel macek, privacy
Companies: dallas buyers club llc, iinet, voltage pictures
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If the court approves of the letter then will the next letter that is sent by DBC/VP be reveiewed by the court? If that second letter is not reviewed then DBC/VP could end up with threats, extortion etc. that wasn't in the first letter and so the reviewing by the court would be a complete waste of time.
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Eyes ---> you
After all... if the recipients don't lawyer up, or if the lawyer isn't following this particular branch of the story, they might not get caught. A particularly observant court clerk *might* catch it, if it's in the same district, but it's a stretch.
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Re: Eyes ---> you
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Re: Re: Eyes ---> you
I'm quite sure there will not be any 'accidental' letters. Australia is not the US.
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Re: Eyes ---> you
It's a lose-lose for Voltage to not abide by the court here, oh and the monetary fines are immense for an organisation (they could even be brought up on criminal charges - though that would be highly unusual)
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Re: Re: Eyes ---> you
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if a few 'accidental' letters were sent as the AC mentioned, with Voltage banking on a light slap of the wrist at worst if they get caught(you know, like what happens in the US when a copyright extortionist blatantly flaunts a court order).
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Re: Re: Re: Eyes ---> you
"I'm quite sure there will not be any 'accidental' letters. Australia is not the US".
Why do you think they would be so stupid as to go down a path which their Australian lawyers will advise them will ensure that they will then lose this case and lead to other sanctions from the Federal Court of Australia?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Eyes ---> you
Now, I'd certainly love it if the Australian courts actually had a spine when dealing with these kinds of parasites, but so far my experience has been that they will ignore court orders as much as they want, because they know nothing will happen to them as a result if they do.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Eyes ---> you
Like I said, I'd love it if the Australian judges were different, but so far it has seemed that the parasites can pretty much do whatever they like, and the legal systems just sit back and hand out sternly worded 'warnings'(that are then ignored) when the parasites get a little too blatant in their actions. I'd love to be proven wrong, but experience doesn't exactly inspire me to think I will be.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Eyes ---> you
This case has been ALL over our media and has caused a lot of interest to be back into the stupidity that is copyright in Australia.
It's quite telling when even law professors are now getting on main news channels and stating that even if the letters were approved by the court Australians should basically ignore them anyway since there is NO criminality involved here.
I for one have had numerous clients question me personally now on the implications of this case.
Voltage Pictures whole case would be destroyed if they even had one letter go out before a court approves it, and then they have the problem that they can not send further letters either due to our very onerous privacy restrictions here and lets not forget its a loser pat system here in Aust for civil cases. the MPAA found that out the hard way with iiNet :)
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Thanks to this decision, the next statistics will rate Australia as the highest VPN users in the world.
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Re:
If you are wondering why this is, the woeful release dates for both TV series and films in this country contributes greatly to it.
Factor 2 is the local price gouging for downloadable content and pay TV. If you can get it in the US for $10, why do we have to pay sometimes double or more for the same thing here?
If Voltage wants people to play fair, instead of looking into the intricacies of the Australian legal system, why don't they spend their hard earned on fixing both the issues above?
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Dallas Buyers Club
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Re: Dallas Buyers Club
2) The Australian users' accounts have not been accessed.
3) The 'commercial overseas interest' [sic.] alleges copyright infringement. They are entitled to do so.
If I write a book and you re-publish it without permission, does it matter how I find out about it? Should I not pursue you for copyright infringement.
There are certainly arguments against the tactics used by the movie copyright holders. Let's make those arguments, instead of focussing on red herrings.
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Re: Re: Dallas Buyers Club
Though if any criminal investigation concludes that so called evidence was obtained criminally then that evidence's reliability is brought into question and is extremely tainted. It doesn't mean the evidence cannot be used, it just means that that evidence is going to need a lot more supporting evidence to back it up
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TPG Customer Service
We jumped ship to Internode, who were a little more expensive but we figured it would be worth it. We have had almost no problems with the service and their customer service is the best in the world! A self-owned call centre full of people who know what they are talking about and very helpful and very friendly and not in the least bit patronising. If you want a lesson in customer service, they are a shining example.
Shortly after we joined Internode as our ISP, they were bought by iiNet, about a couple of months later. So far nothing has changed. But if TPG's customer service is anything to go by, God help iiNet's customers! We are rapidly turning into the U.S. in terms of how many ISP's we have available. In fact, many TPG customers joined iiNet or Intenode to get away from TPG and are now considering Telstra and Optus for their ISP's, something previously unimaginable.
So if TPG's customer service is anything to go by, all iiNet customers will soon be merely a cash cow with no care and little responsibility taken, if any.
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Re: TPG Customer Service
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Re: TPG Customer Service
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Dallas Buyers Club
Anyone who has actually watched it has reached the lowest depth's of American insensibility. The only phrase that I can think appropriate to this particular movie is "The Emperor Clothes are Not There".
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The main issue with PCAP timestamps
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