global_global 03/10/2014 03:03 Page 1
Rights and
wrongs
ebate surrounding
copyright and piracy
has become
particularly heated in recent
months in Australia, where
the federal government is
seeking to update copyright
laws.
A discussion paper addressing
online copyright infringement was
issued in July 2014 by Attorney
General George Brandis and
Communications Minister
Malcolm Turnbull. The paper calls
for comments on a range of issues
including new definitions for
“reasonable steps” an ISP must
take to prevent or avoid copyright
infringement, what rights
consumers punished under these
steps would have, what courts
would need to consider when
ordering a website to be blocked,
and extending so-called “safe
harbour” provisions for avoiding
copyright infringement cases to
include universities and search
engines such as Google.
In February Brandis said that
without strong, robust copyright
laws, Australia’s creative industry
was at risk of being cheated of the
fair compensation for its creativity.
“The government will be
considering possible mechanisms
to provide a ‘legal incentive’ for an
internet service provider to
cooperate with copyright owners
in preventing infringement on
their systems and networks,” he
explained. “This may include
looking carefully at the merits of a
scheme whereby ISPs are required
to issue graduated warnings to
D
GLOBAL
ROUND-UP
Anti-piracy bodies worldwide
continue their fight against
illegal copying and distribution of
premium content, both in terms of direct
agency action against offenders, as well as
by lobbying legislators. Equally, educating
the public as to the true cost of piracy is
seen as in important weapon in the battle.
consumers who are using websites
to facilitate piracy. A trial under
which ISPs passed on notices of
alleged online copyright
infringement to their customers
was abandoned in May 2013 after
iiNet withdrew.
BLOG. Steve Dalby, Chief
Regulatory Officer at Australian
ISP iiNet, turned to the company
blog in early September 2014 to
attack Federal government
proposals. In the post – ‘Paying
the price of online policing’ Dalby, a regular blogger on
copyright and piracy issues, notes
that iiNet has made a submission
on this issue.
“As we’ve said many times
before, iiNet does not condone
copyright infringement. iiNet
supports the government’s stated
desire for a vibrant creative sector
in Australia. In fact, we are a
leader in making content available
to our customers,” he claimed.
Dalby says iiNet is more interested
in addressing the reasons
Australians infringe copyright,
rather than applying a band aid to
a broken leg. “The short-term
approach described in the
government’s discussion paper,
fails to offer anything by way of
long term solutions to reducing
online infringements. Experience
in other countries demonstrates
that targeting BitTorrent file
sharing simply causes infringers to
change tactics. Dr Rebecca Giblin’s
comprehensive and peer-reviewed
research demonstrates that there’s
very little to suggest that ISP
policing or ‘graduated responses’
help achieve any of copyright’s
aims,” he noted.
He suggested that the
government should consider
supporting the relevant stake
holders to embrace the 'Follow the
Money' approach which re-directs
significant advertising revenue
away from sites which facilitate
copyright infringement. “We know
that tackling copyright
infringement is a complex issue,
and we’ll keep fighting for the
rights of our customer,” he )