An Australian court has told ISPs that they must supply details about people suspected of illegally downloading movie The Dallas Buyers’ Club. The movie, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, was originally released in 2013. The decision comes after the case was lodged by the company that owns the rights to the film.
Six firms have been told to hand over the names and addresses of people who acquired the film illegally. The court says that the data can only be used to secure “compensation for the infringements” of copyright. The applicants claimed to have identified 4.726 unique IP addresses linked to the illegal downloads. The film was shared via BitTorrent.
The Australian government has been taken tough steps to crack down on piracy recently. Many TV shows and movies don’t reach Australia for months after they hit the US and European markets, leading to downloaders acquiring content illegally. ISPs have argued that providing customer details could be seen as a breach of privacy. They also argued that the claims against downloaders were so small but their case was dubious at best. Experts say that if the case is successful, the days of anonymous illegal downloading could come to an end.
