[LINK] Online piracy action soon?

Tue May 6 08:59:02 AEST 2014

On 5/05/2014 10:10 AM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
>
> Online piracy crackdown looms
> Madeleine Heffernan
> Published: May 5, 2014 - 8:29AM
>
> Media industry lobbying against online piracy is intensifying, amid
> growing expectations the Abbott government will move shortly to clamp
> down on internet service providers ...

The Pirate Party responds with a petition:
<https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/stop-blaming-consumers-for-the-outdated-business-models-of-the-media-industry>
and a statement:
<http://pirateparty.org.au/2014/05/05/theres-nothing-the-coalition-wont-put-a-price-on-internet-censorship-sponsored-by-hollywood/>

There’s nothing the Coalition won’t put a price on: Internet censorship 
sponsored by Hollywood
Posted on May 5, 2014

Pirate Party Australia is appalled by the news that the Abbott 
Government is allegedly considering proposals to introduce legislation 
to institute Internet censorship and a graduated response 
(“three-strikes”) regime in an ill-conceived attempt to curb the 
incidence of unlawful file-sharing[1].

“There is no public support for this proposed legislation,” commented 
Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. “Why would the public 
support blocking of one of the few means of access to content in this 
broken digital economy?

“Prior to the election this wasn’t even being discussed. However, the 
Government is bringing the proposal back to the table following 
donations of more than $300,000 from Village Roadshow in the last 
financial year[2]. It has also come to light that a key industry 
lobbyist has had privileged access to staff at the Attorney-General’s 
Department[3]. This may be coincidence, but it looks suspicious that 
file-sharing is now prominent on the Government’s agenda, while there 
has been no observed movement on recommendations from the Australian Law 
Reform Commission regarding genuinely important areas of copyright reform.”

In January this year, the Netherlands Court of Appeal in the Hague ruled 
that blockades of the Pirate Bay were ineffective and easy to 
circumvent, and that ISPs were no longer required to block access to the 
popular torrent site[4]. In addition, studies in Australia and around 
the world have cast doubt on the efficacy of graduated response regimes, 
with a paper from Rebecca Giblin of Monash University’s Faculty of Law 
concluding that there is “little to no evidence” graduated responses 
deter or reduce copyright infringement[5][6]. Despite similar 
legislation being introduced in a number of countries to date, no 
evidence has emerged that these have resulted in lowering file-sharing 
behaviour, nor do they offer any significant protections for content 
providers.

As legal options for accessing content increase, file-sharing has been 
shown to decrease. It has been reported in several countries including 
the United States[7], Canada[8] and Norway[9] that access to services 
such as Netflix and Spotify has dramatically reduced file-sharing by 
more than 50% in some instances[10][11].

“Censorship does not work. Three-strikes regimes do not work. 
File-sharing is not theft. Business models need to be changed or adapted 
to meet contemporary demands. Blocking access to websites and 
disconnecting users from the Internet are misguided attempts to placate 
lobbyists which have no proven benefits,” Mr Frew concluded.

“If the Government is really struggling to find effective measures to 
solve some of Australia’s digital economic woes, perhaps they could take 
a serious look at the recommendations from the IT Pricing Inquiry[12] 
and the ALRC Copyright review[13],” said Brendan Molloy, Councillor of 
Pirate Party Australia.

Pirate Party Australia is prepared for achieving appropriate copyright 
reform to be a long campaign, but remains optimistic that with 
consistent questioning of the influence of corporate interests there 
could be a positive outcome for the Australian public.

[1] 
<http://www.smh.com.au/business/online-piracy-crackdown-looms-20140505-37r3g.html>
[2] 
<http://www.zdnet.com/film-studios-outspend-tech-companies-in-political-donations-7000025866/>
[3] 
<http://www.zdnet.com/film-lobby-emails-detail-persistence-for-copyright-crackdown-7000028324/>
[4] 
<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/29/pirate-bay-ban-lifted-in-netherlands-as-blocking-torrent-sites-ruled-ineffective>
[5] <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2380522>
[6] <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2322516>
[7] 
<https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-is-killing-bittorrent-in-the-us-110427/>
[8] 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/09/18/netflix-canada-piracy-down_n_3947633.html>
[9] 
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10187400/Spotify-and-Netflix-curb-music-and-film-piracy.html>
[10] <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24108673>
[11] 
<http://torrentfreak.com/music-piracy-continues-to-decline-thanks-to-spotify-110928/>
[12] 
<http://www.cnet.com.au/it-pricing-inquiry-verdict-australia-is-consistently-ripped-off-339345012.htm>
[13] 
<http://www.alrc.gov.au/news-media/media-release/alrc-releases-copyright-report>

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Drink no longer water,
                                |  but use a little wine
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  for thy stomach's sake ...
                                |            King James Bible
                                |              1 Timothy 5:23