How are copyright infringers tracked down?

The Dallas Buyers Club (DBC), winner of three Oscars and countless other awards since 2013 and nominations, is one of the leaders of the pack of rights holders taking legal action against those who illegally acquire the film. DBC has notable cases in the United States, Singapore, and Australia. Similarly, a little-known 2012 film directed by Robert Redford based on the 2003 book, The Company You Keep (TYCK), is making waves in the UK against piracy.

Both movies have a history of going after lawbreakers since their respective releases joined the ranks of movies like Expendables 3 (2014) and Hurt Locker (2008). Nicolas Chartier, closely associated with Voltage Pictures, has said of their series of lawsuits against infringers of his films: “The day after we announced 20,000 lawsuits, Internet downloads of injured locker down about 40 percent,” which is good news for business, since tracking down copyright infringers is a lengthy and expensive process that often takes months, if not years, costing many hours and hundreds of hours. of thousands of dollars.

But tracking down copyright infringers can be a complicated process and is usually carried out by government agencies. The UK Intellectual Property Office recently published the latest installment of the Online Copyright Infringement Tracking Survey to investigate online copyright infringement, digital attitudes and behaviors of people in the UK for the both legal and illegal acquisition of content protected by copyright. This comprehensive analysis of consumer trends covered the period from March to May 2015 and was compared to similar findings from the fourth wave of research from March to May 2013 to establish benchmarks for consumption. Survey participants were asked to describe their behavior within the three months prior to the survey.

Similarly, on the same day, an Australian study for the same period as the UK survey revealed that almost half of all Australians acquire content through non-legal means. Ultimately, Australia illegally downloads more content than the UK, but both are at the forefront of revived legal action from movie rights holders like The Company You Keep and Dallas Buyers Club.

In recent weeks, letters from DBC LLC and TYCK LLC have been sent to Internet Service Provider (ISP) users who have illegally acquired content through services such as iiNet and Sky Broadband based on court orders. This summer marks the launch of a new educational program in Britain to raise awareness and combat piracy. The goal of the program is to impact future piracy numbers for the next wave survey and help put an end to digital piracy.