Village Roadshow’s Graham Burke Is Going To Sue You

If you thought Australia passed a series of soft, toothless laws aimed at combatting piracy, you were wrong. Village Roadshow co-CEO Graham Burke has surfaced following the passage of the new laws, and he’s not kidding around: he’ll sue the crap out of you for piracy. Real talk.

In an interview with SBS 2’s The Feed, Burke made it clear that he’s on the anti-piracy warpath, wielding the new legislative weapons he fought (and donated) so hard for.

“Yes [we will sue people for piracy], it’s wrong. [People] have been warned, notices issued that they have been doing the wrong thing. Yes we will sue people,” he said in the interview. See? He’s not messing about.

Burke added that he’s not afraid of looking bad for potential lawsuits against people who might struggle to pay large infringement fines, saying that “if it’s seen in the context that [piracy] is theft and [these people] have been doing the wrong thing, and they’ve been sent appropriate notices and they’ve dealt with accordingly”.

When we’ve covered Burke’s comments in the past, he’s always had some amazing analogies when it comes to the threat of piracy. He’s compared pirates to terrorists and paedophiles, while adding that piracy will torch Australian communities and turn kids into drug dealers. This time it’s no different: this time Burke thinks that pirates are just as bad as drink drivers:

“It’s no different to the highways of Australia where we are pretty damn safe because drunken driving and high speed driving is kept somewhat under control. If there were no [anti-piracy] laws, if there were no regulations, we wouldn’t be safe out there. And if piracy isn’t addressed, there won’t be a Casablanca, there won’t be a Red Dog, and there won’t be a Gallipoli. There won’t be the business model that allows them to be made.

Go and check out the full interview, where Burke goes on to defend the $4 million in government donations and private government screenings, and continues to discuss the threat of piracy in Australia.


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