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ARTICLE · 16 APRIL 2015

Federal Court iiNet decision will impact on online video piracy

Holding Redlich
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ISPs have been ordered to provide names and addresses of customers alleged to have used BitTorrent to share the film.

AustraliaIntellectual Property
Dan Pearce
Dan Pearce
Emily Booth
Emily Booth
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The Federal Court will order various ISPs, including members of the iiNet Group and Dodo, to provide to Dallas Buyers Club LLC (or parent company Voltage Pictures LLC) the names and addresses of customers who are alleged to have used BitTorrent to share the film Dallas Buyers Club.

In a judgment delivered on 7 April 2015, Justice Perram of the Federal Court pointed out that applications for preliminary discovery such as this ought not to involve such complexity. The purpose was not to determine whether persons who used BitTorrent to share the movie in fact infringed copyright. However, Justice Perram did make many interesting observations in his judgment and imposed some important conditions on the rights owners.

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