Joyce’s thesis is a socio-legal and criminological study of digital copyright infringement in
Australia, colloquially known as digital piracy. It examines how Australia’s legal system
deals with allegations of copyright infringements of digital material using digital
technologies, and particularly how courts identify and respond to infringers of digital
copyright. I use descriptive analysis, network analysis, and thematic analysis of Australian
court cases from 1990 to 2020 to investigate why and how judges assess what is digital
copyright infringement, identify illegitimate copyright content, and respond to the
challenges of digital intermediaries, liability and responsibility.
Using descriptive and network analysis, I demonstrate how case law is used to define
digital copyright infringement within a fast-evolving technological environment. The
analysis shows that Australian judges often reference international cases to help navigate
new legal questions to establish the basis of copyright and its infringement in Australia.
Through thematic analysis of both civil and criminal cases, an unimagined social, digital
pirate emerges - the intermediary. Often, digital intermediaries are found to be liable
and/or responsible for digital copyright infringement. I find that digital intermediaries play
an essential role as both regulators and the regulated within the regulatory strategies for
digital piracy in Australia. There is a bifurcation of liability and responsibility that is unique
to digital copyright. The end-users who access the unauthorised copyright content – and
which are commonly socially imagined as the digital pirates - are absent from the legal
process. This thesis suggests that end-users can take part in regulatory strategies and
comply with the law. Overall, recognition in the courtroom helps acknowledge digital
copyright infringement as collective action.