Jack Delaney* says new draft legislation will make it much more difficult for Australians to illegally download movies, TV shows and music.
Image: Sitade
It’s going to be even tougher than usual for Aussies to watch the last season of Game of Thrones.
Draft legislation is putting the onus on search engine providers instead of attacking websites directly at the source, a practice which is hard to implement because the majority of piracy sites are located overseas.
Targeting search engine results themselves will make it much more difficult for Australians to illegally download movies, TV shows and music.
The new Bill amends laws introduced in 2015, which gave copyright holders the ability to seek an injunction from the Federal Court to block access to copyright-infringing websites.
The proposed Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2018 states: “An injunction may be granted in respect of an online location that has ‘the primary purpose or the primary effect’ of infringing, or facilitating an infringement, of copyright (whether or not in Australia).”
And it will: “Enable copyright owners to seek injunctions requiring online search engine providers to take such steps as the Court considers reasonable so as not to provide search results that refer users to online locations blocked under the scheme.”
Basically, the new Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2018 will expand the power of the copyright holders.
They will now not only be able to block infringing websites, but they will also be able to force search engines like Google or Bing to remove search results for piracy-related websites.
This legislation includes the ability to block popular mirror sites, which are often used to get around injunctions.
It also restricts the “evidentiary burden on copyright owners”, making it easier for rights holders to prove that their content is being pirated.
If passed, the Bill will give content owners unprecedented power over the circulation of their products.
Depending on what half of the piracy debate you are leaning on, this can be seen as a gift or a curse.
Much of the blame is directed towards the wilful blindness of search engines.
Talking to News.com.au, the co-CEO of Village Roadshow, Graham Burke vocalised the industry’s frustration with sites like Google.
“The Government has shut the front door, but Google is leading people to the back door, showing no respect for Australian law or courts let alone any regard for the Australian economy and cultural way of life,” Burke said.
In response, a Google spokesperson said: “Google takes the fight against online piracy very seriously.”
“We have invested tens of millions of dollars in tools and systems that help fight online piracy.”
“We downrank sites in search that have a large number of valid DMCA [US Digital Millennium Copyright Act] notices and ban pirate sites from our ad network.”
Some consider piracy as bad as stealing a DVD, or even a car.
Artists need to be supported, and consumers need to do so through monetary compensation.
Others cite a lack of ownership, availability and artificially inflated prices as reasons to pirate.
It seems that access, availability and pricing certainly play their role in piracy.
Since the rise of streaming services like Stan, Netflix and Spotify in Australia, rates of online piracy have dropped dramatically.
According to research undertaken by Screen Australia, illegal piracy is down by nearly 25 per cent in the last year and downloads from sites specifically blocked by Australian ISPs are down 53 per cent.
These new amendments will allow content producers unprecedented control over their content — allowing a monopoly over the industry.
While it is far from perfect, piracy has forced media companies to come up with consumer-friendly ways to provide their content, and if piracy goes away entirely, there is nothing stopping rights holders from charging exorbitant prices and providing access at their whim.
With more and more streaming services popping up on a seemingly weekly basis, the one-time attraction of such services is quickly losing its allure.
With so much content split across so many channels, streaming services are beginning to exhibit the segmentation of cable television, a platform they were supposed to combat.
If this trend continues, it’s going to lead to customer dissatisfaction and, one would assume, increased levels of piracy.
The new laws will make it easier for Aussie rights holders to block the distribution of copyrighted content, which is overwhelmingly a good thing.
It’s important that copyright is respected; it is equally important that consumers are too.
Let’s just hope that this legislation doesn’t lose sight of that balance.
* Jack Delaney is an editor at Techly.
This article first appeared at www.techly.com.au.
