Abstract
The copyright trolling practice sees copyright owners and holders enforcing copyright to create
an extremely lucrative income stream instead of enforcing copyright to deter copyright
infringement. Despite being over a century old, copyright trolling, unlike its patent law
counterpart, has received very little attention from our courts, copyright law and authors alike.
The digital era, which constantly ushers in newer technologies and develops, has undoubtedly
accelerated its proliferation. On the face of it, copyright trolls operate within the confines of
the copyright laws (although copyright trolls are known to buck the law and rules when it suits
them). Upon closer inspection, however, a tale of fraudulent, dishonest, vexatious conduct and
abuse of processes, regulations, rules, and laws, all of which circle back to an abuse of court
processes, begins to reveal itself. To what end? Monetary gains. Gone unchecked, copyright
trolling risks unbalancing the entire copyright law system.
Keywords: copyright, unclean hands, fair dealing, fair use, Internet Service Provider,
infringement, defence; par delictum.