Australia’s war on internet piracy has re-ignited sparking angst among many of the affected factions and little room for resolution.
Attorney-General George Brandis has put the issue back on the hot list agenda and is considering adopting the “three strikes” system that has been introduced in New Zealand and many European markets . However, while the regulation has been viewed as effective in countering piracy in sophisticated offshore digital markets, ISPs are largely against the proposal as it put the administrative onus on them.
Under the scheme that Senator Brandis is considering, the graduated warnings scheme would issue alleged download pirates with a series of warnings before authorities take legal action. Take down notices on ISPs could also be ordered against those that host the pirated content.
iiNet has said that the system has not worked well overseas and that the best way forward was to work on escalating release times for content in the same mode as Netflix and Hulu.
Foxtel, has been string advocate for combatting piracy with Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein recently stating at the SPA conference that “nobody in this county understands realises how severe this piracy issue is.”
“Australia, I think is the biggest illegal downloader in the world. ..With 950, 000 people in Australia relying on the growth of content industry, this is a serious issue that effects not just for Foxtel but for all of the creative industries in Australia. For this reason alone the government has a duty to act,” he said renewing calls for a review of the legislative framework.
Freudenstein had indicated that he supported legislation that would give powers to ISPs to block illegal sites and send notices to illegal file sharers.
The vexed issue continues to pit content owners against content platform, reaching an apex in 2012 when iiNet defeated the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) in the High Court. The court had ruled that iiNet has no direct power to prevent its users from using BitTorrent to infringe on copyright, despite notices that AFACT had provided to iiNet to issue directives to customers.
Brandis said in a speech last week that “the government will not be seeking to burden ISPs beyond what is reasonably necessary to comply with appropriate domestic and international obligations."
"As well, I would like to emphasise that this would not put Australian ISPs at a disadvantage by comparison with their counterparts internationally, as many overseas jurisdictions have the concept of authorisation liability, secondary liability, or similar, which are intended to capture ISPs," he added
