Digital Piracy In Australia

Digital piracy is a significant problem world-wide, which has been steadily increasing over recent years. A study conducted by NetNames last year found that 432 million people “explicitly sought infringing content”. A more in-depth analysis of three key regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific), found that “infringing bandwidth use increased by 159.3%...327 million internet users explicitly sought infringing content [and] 13.9 billion page views were recorded on web sites focused on piracy”.

Although internet piracy can be classified as a world-wide epidemic, Australia has been identified as one of the worst offenders. This was clearly shown after an analysis by TorrentFreak, a file-sharing site monitor, of ‘Game of Thrones’ season four

Despite the fact that there is a widely held consensus that something needs to be done to eliminate the ability to bypass copyright protections, various organisations have opposing views of how to best achieve this.

The Australian Government believes the best option is to enforce strict anti-piracy legislation. In a released discussion paper, the government suggests granting courts the ability to order internet service providers (ISPs) to “block access to internet sites that operate outside Australia and whose main function is to enable copyright infringements”, at the behest of the rights holder. These new laws would require ISPs like iiNet, Optus and Telstra to take “reasonable steps” to prevent their customers from infringing IP law.

Although this proposal is gaining support from television, movies and music organisations throughout Australia, the head of Communications Alliance, John Stanton, highlights some associated challenges. The most important of which, is that it questions the freedom and utility of the internet, and the possible accidental blocking or removal of sites that aren’t infringing any

Even though new technology advancements can be used to circumvent copyrights, in a number of cases individuals solely use it for the purposes of innovation, enabling them to create something new and different. In situations like these, IP law can lead to the “inadvertent criminalisation” of individuals, who have no intention of breaching any copyrights, and are exempted under the ‘fair use’