The Feed's Marc Fennell spoke to Village Roadshow's co-founder Graham Burke about changes to Australian copyright law that will see personal details handed over after multiple torrenting infringements.
Are you prepared to sue people for piracy?
Yes, it’s wrong. [They have] been warned, notices issued, that they have been doing the wrong thing. Yes we will sue people.
Are you concerned about the blowback? Because back In the 90s when the record industry started sending out invoices and lawsuits to single parents and grandmothers there was a storm of terrible publicity. Are you prepared for that?
It was really just a couple of instances of a bad news day, where they picked up a couple of instances of a single pregnant mother…
But all it’s going to take it a couple of those and it’s a really bad company story.
Not if its seen in the context that it is theft, and they have been doing the wrong thing, and they’ve been sent appropriate notices, and they’ve been dealt with accordingly. We’re certainly not going to be seeking out single pregnant mothers.
Do you have a list of people who are considered appropriate?
Well the criteria will be a person who is pirating movies. We won’t necessarily know who they are, but if they’re pirating movies on a fairly large scale they’re clearly doing the wrong thing. It’s no different to the highways of Australia where we are pretty damn safe because drunken driving and high speed driving is kept somewhat under control. If there were no laws, if there were no regulations, we wouldn’t be safe out there. And if piracy isn’t addressed, there won’t be a Casablanca, there won’t be a Red Dog, and there won’t be a Gallipoli. There won’t be the business model that allows them to be made.
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