They know where the pirates live

An Australian court has ordered internet providers to hand over details of thousands of customers who illegally downloaded the film Dallas Buyers Club. In a landmark ruling, the owners of the rights to the film won a battle to access the contact details of 4,726 people who apparently shared the Oscar winning 2013 film, which starred Matthew McConaughey. Citing the need to deter future online pirates, the Federal Court ordered several internet providers to hand over details associated with Australian IP addresses, which Dallas Buyers Club LLC says were linked to illegal downloads via BitTorrent, a file sharing network. The firms subject to the order include iiNet, one of Australia's biggest internet providers. They had argued the case was frivolous because it would be "economically pointless" for the film producers to try to recover the value of each copy of the movie, worth about a few dollars apiece. The court rejected the argument, stating: "It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that damages of a sufficient size might be awarded, in an appropriately serious case, in a bid to deter people from the file sharing of films." That is just wrong. The rights holders now know where those people live, and could threaten the pirates and/or their families. And it has no effect on me because I live over the Tasman.