Pirate website blocking laws readied for parliament

Date: March 17, 2015

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Ben Grubb

Deputy technology editor

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Attorney-General George Brandis says the bill will be ready 'soon'.

Laws that will force Australian internet service providers to block websites hosting pirated content will soon be introduced into parliament.

The Copyright (Online Infringement) Bill 2015, given the green-light by the Coalition's joint party room on Tuesday, will, if passed, enable rights holders to seek a court order requiring Australian internet service providers to block websites hosting unauthorised copies of their movies, music or TV shows.

The legislation has not yet been made public and it is not know when this will occur.

A spokesman for Attorney-General George Brandis said the government would introduce the bill "soon", but did not say when.

The site-blocking bill is part of the government's response to tackling online piracy announced last December.

The second part of the government's response saw it issue an ultimatum to ISPs to reach an agreement with film and music companies within four months on an industry code to tackle online piracy. If ISPs and rights holders cannot reach an agreement by April, then the government will create a binding code for them.

Last month a draft anti-piracy code was released for public comment by the ISPs which will see them forward "infringement' notices from rights holders to customers caught allegedly infringing copyright. The code would also require ISPs to hand alleged pirates' details over to rights holders, potentially without a court fight, which is likely to open the floodgates to a number of people being sued for copyright infringement in the Federal Court for thousands of dollars.

40 comments so far

Why would any company or any organisation have any faith in this Abbott government drafting any legislation that would be of any value to anyone least of all any legislation sponsored by George Brandis who clearly has no idea about modern technology?

Commenter

RTP

Location

Sawtell

Date and time

Tue Mar 17 09:08:59 UTC 2015
- A better question;
  WHY WHY WHY?
  WHY would a Government for the Australian, yes, Australian people be preoccupied with this issue?
  If you asked 10 or 10,000,000 people to itemise their top 100 critical issues facing the country censoring the internet would not rate 0.001%
  Why and WHO exactly is this legislation designed to benefit?
  
  Commenter
  
  Ed
  
  Location
  
  Sydney
  
  Date and time
  
  Tue Mar 17 11:35:04 UTC 2015
- The probably don't have any faith. And certainly shouldn't.
  "the government will create a binding code for them" is actually a threat of having incompetent people do it, rather than an offer of assistance.
  
  Commenter
  
  Alistair
  
  Date and time
  
  Tue Mar 17 11:52:09 UTC 2015
- Not to worry. The work arounds are already out there. Any government will always be one step behind. I'm old but I truly celebrate the millenials embrace of that old 60s call to, "subvert the paradigm." Peace all!
  
  Commenter
  
  Troppo
  
  Date and time
  
  Tue Mar 17 12:02:28 UTC 2015
- Besides cost, this is the main reason people pirate.
  http://reckoner.com.au/2014/07/watching-tv-in-australia-the-australian-delay-under-the-microscope/
  In this day and age of technology and people around the globe being constantly connected, it is almost impossible to go a day, week or months without reading an article or seeing comments regarding your favourite TV shows and what has transpired.
  I say, if they don't use it, they should lose it i.e 7 want to hold out showing the second half of the season of Blacklist, then Foxtel or the like should be able to show it. The current system is antiquated and needs to be modernized.
  
  Commenter
  
  Fyre
  
  Location
  
  Melbourne
  
  Date and time
  
  Tue Mar 17 22:07:08 UTC 2015
- VPN; encryption; TOR - obvious 'Solutions' for the latest sellout to vested interest by our big brother leadership.
  Like Canute 'the little people' won't be able to turn back the tide of repressive Free Trade Agreements like the TPP that enshrine the 'Rights' of corporations over sovereign peoples.
  ~ image ~ Brave New World clock sweeps ever closer to midnight.
  It's great to post objections but what are we 'THE PEOPLE' prepared to do about the poor IT illtierate grandmother who gets caught up with these draconian attempts to impose censorship and snoop into the private lives of its citizens?
  When it inevitably comes I hope the response is massive and ongoing street protests targeted at the courts; lawyers and politicans of both stripe until Australia records the 'Rights' of it's peoples in a new constitution.
  By my count recent Australian governments have broken or seriously bent 15 of the United Nations 30 Univeral Declaration of Human Rights -6,7,9,10,11,12,14,16,18,20,22,23,26,29,30. A Free Western Democratic Government has already removed half of my basic rights
  Martin Niemoller ~"First they came for the Communists ......... "
  
  Commenter
  
  An
  
  Location
  
  Aust
  
  Date and time
  
  Wed Mar 18 00:52:46 UTC 2015
- Ed, ignoring the usual rant from the anti-Abbotts on here, you're right. Like ALP tried with their filter, and now this, why??
  
  Commenter
  
  Trev
  
  Date and time
  
  Wed Mar 18 03:22:19 UTC 2015
If only the Politicians cared as much about Australian Consumers as they do about the greedy Corporate internationals.
Ironic at a time they are saying they are piracy is killing their industry you have the likes of Fox posting record earnings for their 2014 box office takings to the tune of 5.5 Billion.
They can block it all they like, the longer they continue to ignore the real problem of outdated industry business models, the more "pirates" will slip through their fingers.

Commenter

Alex

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

Tue Mar 17 10:55:04 UTC 2015
VPN Time

Commenter

Josh

Date and time

Tue Mar 17 10:55:10 UTC 2015
Bravo! Good boy Tony! This is a nice follow up to metadata laws to pay back political donors and supporters, Master Murdoch in particular.

Commenter

Varta

Location

Sydney

Date and time

Tue Mar 17 10:59:20 UTC 2015

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