Today the Australian Federal Court ruled that internet service providers (ISPs) must hand over the names and addresses of customers suspected of infringing the copyright of the Dallas Buyers Club movie.
This precedent means that your browsing and download history and your privacy are not safe in the hands of your ISP. ISP iiNet had attempted to resist demands to hand over its customers’ names and addresses and took that fight to the Australian Federal Court. However, the Federal Court ruled against iiNet meaning it and other ISPs must hand over names and addresses of customers the movie owners suspect of downloading the Dallas Buyers Club (it is actually about uploading the movie but given how Torrent clients work, most downloaders would have also uploaded the movie unwittingly).
You should take steps now to get a virtual private network (VPN) to protect your privacy from your ISP who might be forced by a court to hand over your internet and download history to foreign corporations. Read how to choose a VPN provider by clicking here.
The court ruling puts all Australians on notice that their internet habits are disclosable to private corporations or governments whether or not your ISP wants to hand over their customers’ names and addresses.
The court made the following order:
“I will order the ISPs to divulge the names and physical addresses of the customers associated in their records with each of the 4,726 IP addresses. I will impose upon the applicants a condition that this information only be used for the purposes of recovering compensation for the infringements and is not otherwise to be disclosed without the leave of this Court. I will also impose a condition on the applicants that they are to submit to me a draft of any letter they propose to send to account holders associated with the IP addresses which have been identified.”
This goes hand in hand with an ominous statement from the lawyers for the Dallas Buyers Club who said:
“There’s a lot of speculation from iiNet about what our client might do. No decision has been made what will happen. But it’s not seeking this information just for fun.”
Australians should take immediate steps to protect their privacy and internet habits by using a VPN. You can find out how to choose a VPN provider by clicking here.
And just for fun, this is what the lawyers for Dallas Buyers Club said about using VPNs to protect your privacy:
“Wondering whether you can lawfully circumvent the data retention law by using VPNs and other things that aren’t caught? Yes you can.”
So, take the obvious hint and get a VPN now.
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