When I first heard of the iiNet Australia scandal in relation to the unusual actions of Voltage Pictures, an American Corporation attempting to prosecute 4,726 Australian Internet users for illegally leeching, seeding and torrenting the 2013 blockbuster film, Dallas Buyers Club, I was puzzled, and concerned. Even though I did not specifically torrent the film, I have downloaded movies and TV shows off the Internet for self-enjoyment in the past.

An acquaintance of mine who I must not identify, which will be named X, is highly proficient with technology. They have created a collection of downloaded movies in the form of a neat packaged online library for their friends to enjoy through an anonymous software program. X downloads programs to a server, which is located in the basement of their house. Their friends are able to access this server using a username and password, and it allows them to watch hundreds of movies and television shows on their own televisions, in the privacy of their own homes, much like other streaming services such as Netflix, Stan or Hulu. As X has illegally torrented thousands of megabytes of licensed content over the last decade, this scandal led me to question, will they be caught sometime in the future? Will higher forces reveal their so-called safeguarded anonymity for the purpose of gathering capital?

***

It is 2036. The online activity of every Australian citizen is under strict surveillance. In the public eye, an elaborate network of recording devices are used to inspect and scrutinise the movements, searches and metadata from the IP addresses of all Australians. These recording devices are located on every street, intersection, park and public square in the nation. No citizen can escape the government’s watchful eye. Every Australian exists in a super-manicured and pristine urban environment, and their lives are completely devoid of cultural activity. Crime and discordant behaviour has been eradicated. From a governmental perspective, this is an ideal society.

A singular national media outlet offers a carefully curated selection of propagandised content for the population to consume in order to discourage riotous discordance against the current government in power. This media is freely available on the Internet and channels on the now-obsolete television. The free and infinite access to media content through the Internet of the past that citizens once enjoyed, and were in their rights to exercise, now ceases to exist.

In addition to the constant monitoring of one’s public meanderings, the individual, online activity of Australia’s population is meticulously recorded and documented by the Australian Anti Piracy Department of Internet Activities, (AAPDIA). The catalyst for this organisation was the illegal downloading of the movie Dallas Buyers Club in 2015 from open-source, peer to peer torrent websites. The task force was set up to hunt down the citizens who were compliant in doing so. The company who distributed the film, Voltage Pictures LLC, were solely responsible in orchestrating a full scale investigation to access the identities of those who downloaded the movie from Australian Internet service providers (ISPs). The legal precedent set by the case was so that every Australian who used the Internet was forced to divulge their personal details to the AAPDIA, so that the Department could track down and prevent online piracy.

Now, illegally downloading content from the Internet is equitable to a serious burglary offence. If one is found to have illegally downloaded information for one’s personal use, AAPDIA is liable to enforce a lifelong sentence at an anti-piracy prison camp at a top secret location, somewhere deep within Australia’s Central Desert. This camp is located approximately 3000 kilometres from the nearest human settlement. The camp, which, for security purposes is un-named, forces prisoners to search diligently for IP addresses that download licensed content under 24-hour supervision. The prison camp is stylistically brutalist in its expansive concrete facade, pristine white floors and blinding white lights. The camp contains no windows, only enclosure and oppression. A four metre high steel fence encloses the camp, with barbed wire strategically placed to prevent escape. The camp’s chilling appearance is completely unknown to the public. It is inaccessible and blurred out on all infrared and satellite mapping systems. To the outside world, the camp does not exist.

The prisoners are given instructions by the guards to report findings of illegal online activities to the AAPDIA task-force through an online messaging system. The prisoners have no contact with the task-force and the outside world. The prisoners are also fed two basic meals a day, clothed in all-black prison garb and provided shelter in shared dormitories. As part of their sentence, the prisoners are forced to watch Dallas Buyers Club for three days a week on a 24-hour loop in complete isolation, at full volume. The forced viewing of the film is instigated as an act of rehabilitation, in order to remind prisoners of their actions that resulted in the creation of AAPDIA. Over the space of a few months, the prisoners are completely brainwashed into being subservient to the demands of AAPDIA. The prisoners eventually learn to enjoy their existences as rats, and complete their tasks with deep satisfaction. Their individual identities no longer exist here. With their names eliminated, they are only numbers.

The terrifying exercise of power and domination the Australian government wields over its citizens means that any public protests against these draconian practices are also punishable by a jail term. This deters Australians from voicing their opinions on this matter, or any other governmental ‘wrong-doing’. At present, no one is safe against the sanctions of AAPDIA enforcement. The task-force is able to access the online activities of Internet users on handheld devices or hardware in an instant. The Internet is now infiltrated with task-force officers who have the power to detect, discipline and sentence those caught downloading content to a dehumanising and miserable future.

Citizens convicted of downloading content were once perceived as cowboys, thought to be unstoppable. Now, they are aliens, hunted mercilessly by higher authorities, like a lion in search of prey as punishment for their victimless crimes.

***

It is 2036. X has been working as a software technician for the last twenty years. X has a partner, two children of high school age and a Golden Retriever. They all reside in a double story house in a plush upper-middle class suburb. You might say that X’s life appears standard from an outsider’s perspective. Yet in the shadows, they download content from the Internet through a proxy server, which disguises their VPN to originate from another country. Through this, X can download media content anonymously with the use of advanced encryption software located on external disk-drives, which are illegally smuggled into the country. X subconsciously knows that they may be caught and imprisoned for life. However, their crippling addiction to watching obscure Western melodramas and Japanese game-shows compels them to keep going, regardless of the thought that his reputation, and quality of life as he knows it may be destroyed, forever.

For the last twenty years, X has kept their online activity a secret from his partner and children. Every weeknight, after work, X downloads content from the Internet and watches their illegal media haul until bedtime. X’s partner is under the impression that they are completing tasks that weren’t finished during the workday, yet X’s excuses remain a lie. X’s torrenting software is locked away securely in a safe in the cupboard adjacent to their desk, which is dimly lit and stands next to a shelf filled with a plethora of downloaded content. X comes home from work, downloads content, eats dinner with their partner and family, and then returns to the basement to download and watch his seeded cult films. X must keep these activities a secret from their friends and work colleagues, to protect themself, their family, and their reputation. There are obviously other individuals in the nation that illegally download content in a similar anonymous fashion, yet he is unaware of this happening. To this day, they remain reluctant to contact others on the Internet about their activities.

On a sunny September Sunday morning, X’s partner calls up to them that she and the kids are heading to the local shopping mall. “I’m just going to the mall to do some birthday present shopping. Don’t forget to walk the old boy, he’s getting quite pudgy! X’s partner presses her thumb on the ID panel to unlock the front door. See you later, I love you!”. “I love you too, and I’ll see you later on. I have a lot of work to complete, so you know where I’ll be!” “Oh, could you bring back some mouse traps, we have rats in the walls,” they yell. She says she will try not to forget, and then exits.

X walks downstairs, makes a cup of coffee, then retreats back downstairs into the dark. They open up the cupboard door adjacent to their desk, and proceeds to unlock the safe with their thumbprint. X blows onto their old CD Drive that contains the torrenting software to remove all traces of dust, and inserts the drive into the computer underneath the desk. They switch on the monitor, then begins to search for a suitable torrent for a film recommended to them by an anonymous user on a secret online forum.

Approximately half an hour later, X hears an unusual noise. A large, black van with two suspicious-looking men inside pulls up. A faint, muffled sound of a familiar western track blasts from the van radio. X’s attention is suddenly piqued, and they are distracted from the task at hand. X loves Western films, especially anything that features John Wayne. The van’s number plate is standard issue, and the van itself has no writing on the exterior. X is immediately suspicious, and paces upstairs quietly towards the laundry. They drag the dog alongside them, who is oblivious to the situation at hand. They clear away some of the kids’ clothes on the laundry floor, and holds the dog while quietly crouching down. They close the laundry door, and they then wait quietly with an ear to the door’s metal frame. For defence, they keep the door to the backyard unlocked in case they need to make a quick escape. They realise that their hiding place is now futile, yet they have no time to walk to the ensuite of the main bedroom upstairs, which would have been their second option.

While X is hiding, the two men walk to the doorway. They are both holding automatic rifles, and wearing all black military clothing with combat boots. Both men are over six feet tall, with muscular appearances. The two men are bald, and on the left side of their shirts, a badge that reads AAPDIA is sown onto the area above their chest pockets. The two men conceal tasers, attached to their calves by a strap. A large pitbull accompanies them. The first man, (One), sneaks quietly to the side of the house where the side alley is located. One climbs over the gate, while the second man, (Two), hoists him up. One creeps around the side of the house while holding his rifle. Two and the pitbull are positioned in front of the master bedroom’s front window on the bottom level. Gun drawn. One makes a command to Two via radio:

“FIRE.”

The glass smashes into shrapnel in every direction. The loud noise startles X. The dog’s loud yelp reveals X’s hiding place, and X is forced to muffle the dog’s mouth with a handful of his children’s clothes. X crawls with the dog into the cupboard, comforting the dog as they both lie under a pile of unwashed clothes. Two walks into the bedroom through the broken window and into the front hallway. One paces around the backyard and finds his way to the locked glass security door in the main room. One shoots the lock and the door flies open.

The main room consists of a long glass table with eight chairs surrounding it, a living area with a plush carpet, a modular couch in the room’s left corner and a bookshelf to the right. A bouquet of white orchids adorns the vase on the glass table. One hides behind the bench leading to the kitchen while Two frantically searches the house for their unknown suspect.

The dog yelps again as a warning shot fires upstairs. Two walks into the study after shooting the lock on the door. He immediately discovers J’s computer, disk drives and office supplies. Two notes this down, searches the remaining upstairs area, and heads downstairs. One and Two both walk towards the sound of the cowering dog, who is now barking madly.

X fails to subdue the dog’s protective growls. It dawns upon them that the freedom that characterised his life up to this moment was about to end. One and Two open the metal laundry door. The dog’s head is breaching from the pile of clothing. The pitbull growls, then lunges into the dog’s chest. The dog’s blood runs everywhere, soiling the already dirty clothes. A violent zapping, almost sizzling sound emanates from X’s visibly shaken body after Two pulls the taser from under his pants. X emits a deafening howl and briefly passes out, writhing violently on the floor.

One and Two place X’s limp hands behind his back. They cuff X’s arms and legs, and shove a rag into their mouth. The dog is covered in blood, and lies unconscious on the laundry floor. X is lifted from the laundry into the black van in front of their house. They wake up, struggling to lift their head from the floor. X’s head then bangs on the van’s metal flooring. They realises that they are completely immobilised, and cannot make a sound. While this is happening, One and Two both return to X’s basement and proceed to transport his computer and disk drives into the van for evidence. X vigorously convulses in the back of the van. The western music continues to play from the van radio, the van quickly pulls out of X’s driveway, and then heads to an unknown destination.

While One is on the phone to the AAPDIA task-force, Two speaks to X with a clear, hoarse, almost gruffly voice. “We do not know your name, yet you will come to know ours very soon. You have been accused of downloading illegal content, and an anonymous tipoff led our task-force at AAPDIA to your exact location. As punishment, expect an uncertain future ahead of you. Your actions carry dire consequences, and your anonymity can not, and will not last forever. All those convicted of downloading content are traitors, you are an enemy of the state and stealing is an unforgivable crime against capitalism. You will be publicly shamed, and you will never see your friends or family for as long as you live.”

X is sobbing on the floor, unsure of what will happen to his partner and children. They are deeply ashamed; not of the fact that they will never see his family again, but in regards to their partner’s imminent realisation that X’s actions have casted them as a degenerate, a fool and a compulsive liar.

In 2036, certain actions carry certain consequences, and no amount of protection can withstand one from the repercussions of engaging with downloadable content. The hunters will always capture the hunted forevermore, and no one is left safe.