ISP Copyright Infringement Notice Template for Australia

A notice is not a court order and does not by itself prove infringement or create a debt. It operates under the safe harbour scheme in Part V Division 2AA of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and under the carriage service provider's own acceptable use terms, which the subscriber agreed to when taking the service. Its practical force comes from those contractual terms and from the provider's repeat infringer policy, so the consequences clause should state exactly what action follows each notice.

To be effective for safe harbour purposes, a notice from a copyright owner should follow the form prescribed under the Copyright Regulations 2017, including identification of the work, the alleged infringing material or activity, the IP address and timestamp, contact details for the complainant, and a statement made in good faith that the use was not authorised. When the provider passes the allegation on to the subscriber, the notice should also state the date, the account affected and the step in the escalation process. Missing timestamps or time zones are the most common reason an allegation cannot be matched to an account.

Not without either your consent or a court order. Subscriber details are personal information governed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and Australian Privacy Principle 6, and copyright owners generally must obtain preliminary discovery under rule 7.22 of the Federal Court Rules 2011, as they did in Dallas Buyers Club LLC v iiNet Ltd. The confidentiality clause in the notice should confirm that identity is withheld unless disclosure is compelled or permitted by law.

Section 116AH of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) requires a carriage service provider to adopt and reasonably implement a policy for terminating the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances if it wants to keep its safe harbour protection. That means continued allegations can lead to speed limiting, suspension or account termination under the provider's terms. The escalation clause should set out how many notices trigger each step and what warning is given first.

An education or warning notice should not include a settlement demand. In Dallas Buyers Club LLC v iiNet Ltd the Federal Court refused to allow letters seeking large lump sums from account holders, restricting recoverable amounts to the cost of a licence and reasonable costs of identifying the person. Including a payment demand in an ISP notice risks it being characterised as speculative invoicing, so the notice should be limited to the allegation, the consequences and how to respond.

The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) requires expeditious action for safe harbour, which in practice means forwarding or acting on a valid notice within a few business days of receipt. Providers also need to match the IP address to an account before logs are cycled, so notices that arrive weeks after the alleged activity may be impossible to attribute. Set an internal turnaround time in the processing clause and record the date each notice was received and sent.

Yes. A subscriber can respond that the allegation is inaccurate, that the IP address was misattributed, that the use was fair dealing under sections 40 to 43 of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), or that another household user was responsible. The notice should include a response window, usually 14 to 21 days, and a contact point, and the provider should pause escalation while a genuine dispute is being assessed. Where content was hosted rather than shared over the network, the counter notice process for restoring removed material applies.