Is Torrenting Illegal in Australia?
Torrenting itself is legal in Australia. Torrenting a film, series, game or album you have not paid for is copyright infringement. This is general information, not legal advice.
What the law says
BitTorrent moves large files by having everyone who downloads a file share pieces of it with others. Plenty of legitimate things travel this way, including Linux, game updates and public-domain films.
The problem is copyright. Under the Copyright Act 1968, copying or sharing a copyrighted work without permission is an infringement. Torrenting does both: you make a copy, and you upload to others while you download. That second part is why torrenting is treated more seriously than streaming from a dodgy website.
For home users it is a civil matter: the copyright owner can sue for damages. The Act’s criminal penalties are aimed at commercial-scale piracy.
What has happened in practice
Australia blocks piracy sites and pursues operators rather than chasing individual downloaders.
- Dallas Buyers Club, 2015. The film’s owners asked the Federal Court to make iiNet and other providers hand over details of about 4,700 customers whose connections had shared the film. The court agreed. It then refused to let the company send its planned letters of demand without lodging a large bond, because the sums it wanted were excessive. The company gave up in early 2016. It is the nearest Australia has come to mass action against downloaders.
- No warning-notice scheme. A proposed “three strikes” scheme was shelved in 2016 after providers and rights holders could not agree on who would pay.
- Site blocking. Since 2015, copyright owners can ask the Federal Court to order providers to block overseas sites whose main purpose is piracy. The Pirate Bay and hundreds of others are blocked this way, and a 2018 change widened it to mirror sites and search results.
Can you be caught?
Yes, in principle. Everyone sharing the same file can see your IP address, and rights holders hire monitoring firms to collect those addresses.
Your internet provider knows which customer had an address at a given time, and keeps that metadata for two years under Australian law. Joining the dots needs a court order, as in the Dallas Buyers Club case.
Where a VPN fits
A VPN hides your IP address from the swarm and hides the traffic’s content from your provider. Others see the VPN server’s address instead of yours.
- A VPN does not make infringement legal. It changes who can see what you do, not whether it is allowed.
- Not every VPN allows it everywhere. Some providers limit file sharing to certain servers or plans, so read the P2P policy first.
Torrenting legitimate files and want the privacy? Look for a kill switch, which stops traffic if the VPN drops, and an independently audited no-logs policy.
Download speed varies a lot between VPNs. We have torrented through 10 VPNs on Australian servers from Melbourne, at rates from 1.74 to 13.1 MiB/s: a gap you notice on a large download. The table dates each result (our first round ran from August 2021 to March 2022) and lists each provider’s kill switch, port forwarding and named auditors.
| VPN | Our torrent speed | P2P policy | Kill switch | Port forwarding | Audited by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Surfshark | 4.13 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | ✓ Listed | Not listed | Deloitte, Cure53 |
 NordVPN | 4.44 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG Switzerland |
 Proton VPN | 5.48 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | Securitum |
 PrivadoVPN | Not tested | Not checked | Not checked | Not checked | – |
 PureVPN | 3.09 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | – |
 Intego VPN | 3.7 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | Not checked | Not checked | – |
 CyberGhost | 11.8 MiB/s tested August 2021 | Not checked | ✓ Listed | Not checked | Deloitte |
 IPVanish | 6.2 MiB/s tested August 2021 | Not checked | ✓ Listed | Not checked | – |
 PrivateVPN | 4.2 MiB/s tested August 2021 | Not checked | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | – |
 ExpressVPN | 11.8 MiB/s tested August 2021 | Not checked | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | KPMG, PwC, Cure53 |
 Windscribe | 11.2 MiB/s tested late 2021 | Not checked | Not listed | ✓ Listed | PacketLabs, Leviathan |
 hide.me | Not tested | Not checked | Not checked | ✓ Listed | – |
 IVPN | Not tested | Not checked | Not checked | Not checked | – |
 Mozilla VPN | Not tested | Not checked | Not checked | Not checked | – |
 Mullvad VPN | Not tested | Not checked | ✓ Listed | Not checked | – |
 Astrill VPN | 13.1 MiB/s tested March 2022 | Not checked | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | – |
 AdGuard VPN | 2.48 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | Not checked | Not checked | – |
 Mysterium VPN | 1.74 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | Not checked | Not checked | – |
 Private Internet Access | 10.4 MiB/s tested late 2021 | Not checked | Not checked | Not checked | – |
Torrent speed is the average download rate we measured on an Australian server, with its date. Features and auditors are as each provider lists them; "Not checked" means we have not recorded it yet.
Tested on an account Surfshark gave us free of charge (16–25 Oct 2026). Tested on an account NordVPN gave us free of charge (14–25 Oct 2026). Tested on an account Proton VPN gave us free of charge (17–21 Oct 2026). Tested on an account PureVPN gave us free of charge (21 Oct 2026). Tested on an account Intego VPN gave us free of charge (22 Oct 2026). Tested on an account AdGuard VPN gave us free of charge (24 Oct 2026). Tested on an account Mysterium VPN gave us free of charge (24 Oct 2026).
FAQ
Is downloading torrents illegal in Australia?
Downloading copyrighted material without permission infringes the Copyright Act. Downloading files that are free to share is legal.
Has anyone in Australia been fined for torrenting?
There has been no successful mass action against individual downloaders in Australia. The Dallas Buyers Club case in 2015 was the main attempt, and it was abandoned.
Is it illegal to visit a blocked torrent site?
The court orders are directed at internet providers, requiring them to block the sites. Under copyright law, what you download is what matters.
Does a VPN make torrenting legal?
No. It hides your IP address, but downloading copyrighted material without permission is still infringement.
Is using a VPN legal in Australia?
Yes. See are VPNs legal in Australia?