Over the years, rights holders have tried several different creative ways to identify and prosecute copyright infringers using the internet. One way of doing that is to compel the potential infringer's internet service provider to produce relevant information through preliminary discovery.

The recent decision of Siemens Industry Software Inc v Telstra Corp Ltd is an example of how copyright owners, especially those whose rights are valuable on a "per copy" basis, can use preliminary discovery to find the missing puzzle piece from ISPs.

Late last year, the film industry in Australia won its first legal battle against piracy and unauthorised downloading practices since the amendment of the Copyright Act in June 2015.