Abstract
In this chapter, we provide an account of the burgeoning trend in Australian copyright case law towards a more sympathetic treatment of copyright users. Traditionally, Australian cases involving internet intermediaries have disregarded the interests of copyright users, treating the fundamental balance as being between protecting creative authors, on the one hand, and promoting technological innovation on the other. Users’ interests were therefore relegated to the sidelines. However, hints of judicial dissatisfaction with the copyright status quo have begun to appear in the case law. In this chapter, we discuss the subtle shifts in the Federal Court’s approach to copyright users as people rather than pirates, beginning around the turn of this last decade in EMI Songs Australia Pty Ltd v Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd [2011] FCAFC 47 and Singtel Optus Pty Ltd v National Rugby League Investments Pty Ltd (No 2) [2012] FCA 34. We then turn to consider the recent Dallas Buyer Club litigation in Australia. We argue that the Dallas Buyers Club decisions are a significant development in the concept of user rights under Australian copyright law, and that the discretionary way in which the court drafted its order is an important foil against dubious rightsholder practices like speculative invoicing.
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