Game of Thrones is one of the most pirated TV shows in Australia. Yes, breaches of copyright are a civil wrong, but Senator Brandis was wrong to suggest his government's data retention regime would have "nothing to do with" assisting in the identification of pirates. Turnbull recently ramped up the rhetoric: "The AFP and ASIO and so forth frankly are not interested in whether you are illegally downloading a copy of Game of Thrones," he said. Despite their assurances, requiring internet providers to store customer metadata will significantly assist with cracking down on piracy. While ASIO and the AFP don't care about those who download movies and TV shows illicitly, movie and TV show rights holders do.

And once rights holders know metadata will be stored by internet service providers for two years under the proposed data retention laws, the likelihood of them successfully being able to go after those who have breached their copyright will increase. At present, rights holders hire private investigators to monitor peer-to-peer file-sharing networks who note down IP addresses of those who download infringing content. Investigators then typically send an "infringement notice" to internet providers, asking them to pass it on to the alleged infringer to warn against repeated breaches. If the provider has the metadata linking the customer to the infringement, it can pass them on - some have but others don't. In some cases, however, the rights holder will take the provider to court, requesting the identities of alleged infringers so that they can be pursued. Until now, this has largely been done outside of Australia. But evidence suggests that instead of pursuing the infringers in court, the rights holders intimidate the individuals into making small settlements by way of demand letters and threats of litigation.

Called "speculative invoicing", this generally involves the rights holder asserting what they think the breach of their copyright is worth — generally several thousand dollars — and saying that they will drop all legal action against the infringer if the user pays the amount listed. Australian internet provider iiNet and other Australian providers are currently dealing with a request by the studio behind the movie Dallas Buyers Club in the Federal Court requesting access to the identities of customers who downloaded its movie illicitly. iiNet is challenging the request, although it's not unheard of for internet providers to hand over metadata about their customers in civil cases. If the studio is successful in getting the identities, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam fears data retention could be used by many more studios to threaten alleged pirates. "I don't think there's any doubt at all that it would open the door to more of that kind of behaviour," he said. According to a recent poll by Essential research, 34 per cent of Australians support using data retention to pursue pirates while 47 per cent oppose it.

Rod McKemmish, national head of PPB Advisory's IT forensics practice, said that if rights holders knew the data required to identify pirates was stored longer than they hold it now, they would be "more inclined" to pursue action. Jon Lawrence of Electronic Frontiers Australia also said it would help rights holders, adding that a statement by Mr Turnbull that data retention would make no difference was "untrue". Mr Turnbull has argued movie studios typically seek the identity behind IP addresses "pretty much in real-time", so retaining the data for two years would make no difference. But Lawrence said the request concerning Dallas Buyers Club, which sees its studio wanting access to historical internet service provider metadata, demonstrated rights holders didn't always investigate in real-time. So while the government's intention might have only been for law-enforcement to use data retention to fight terror and crime, it may not have realised it can be accessible for much more.

Marque lawyers, representing Dallas Buyers Club, recently said as much in a note to its clients titled "Metadata and the law of unintended consequences". "There is nothing in the draft legislation preventing or restricting this use of your data," it said. "Rest assured that lawyers will be all over it. We will; it's a treasure trove. Why hasn't this aspect of the metadata law been discussed? Because the government didn't think of it. Impressive, aren't they." Read Also: How much will you pay to pirate?