The AP wrote that an Australian judge has apparently agreed to release the names of over 4700 Aussies who downloaded the movie Dallas Buyers Club.
SYDNEY (AP) — Internet providers have lost an Australian court battle to keep secret the names of Internet users suspected of illegally downloading Hollywood movie “Dallas Buyers Club” over file-sharing networks.
The Federal Court ruling on Tuesday is a landmark win for copyright holders in a country which has a reputation for being among of world’s most prolific Internet pirates.
Justice Nye Perram granted a discovery order sought by the 2013 movie’s copyright owner Dallas Buyers Club LLC to access names and home addresses of more than 4,700 Australian Internet account holders.
The catch though is that they can’t send invoices/threats directly to the individuals but must do so via the courts to ensure “speculative invoicing” isn’t attempted.
In Australia, as I understand it (according to one news site that broke down what it all meant) in theory the best they can hope to invoice for is the amount they would normally receive, the example provided being US$15 via itunes less Apples 30% cut instead of the $7,000+ they target Americans with.
How close to the truth this is I guess we shall see.
Not to mention take up of VPN services has increased with the passing of meta data retention laws