Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I am grateful to the Attorney for his answer, and I am well familiar with third party discovery, Anton Piller orders and pre-action discovery. Sadly, I still keep a practising certificate going so I can do my pro bono work, which always seems to cost me money. But I just go to this issue: the Australian government's Australian Institute of Criminology website has a publication—it is a few years old now, from back in November 2004—by Tony Krone where reference is made to the fact that, as the Attorney points out, the Copyright Act provides civil and criminal sanctions to protect copyright. My question is in respect of, for instance, section 132(1), as it then was, of the Copyright Act, where it was an offence to make, sell, trade or import an article that infringes copyright or to distribute an infringing item for the purpose of trade. Under section 132(2) of the Copyright Act, there were clearly criminal sanctions. Can the Attorney assure us that, in the course of a prosecution under those sections, citizens who may have downloaded the latest episode of Game of Thrones would not be drawn into a criminal investigation in respect of copyright? That is the nub of my question. In other words, where metadata can be used in copyright matters, can citizens' metadata be accessed?