\n\tSYDNEY: The Australian Senate has passed the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015, which allows for the blocking of websites that may facilitate piracy, with Foxtel, among other TV and film outfits, welcoming the move.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe new law allows content producers and copyright holders to seek court injunctions to block Australians' access to international sites whose "primary purpose" is to provide illegal downloads of TV shows, films or music. Australian internet services will then have to comply with a judge's orders and disable access to those online locations.<\/p>\n
\n\tFoxtel's chief executive, Richard Freudenstein, welcomed the bill. He said: “We are pleased that the government and opposition have taken strong action to combat online piracy. They recognize that, not only is piracy theft and therefore morally wrong, it is harmful to Australia’s creative communities and to businesses that employ hundreds of thousands of Australians.<\/p>\n
\n\t“These offshore sites are not operated by noble spirits fighting for the freedom of the internet; they are run by criminals who profit from stealing other people’s creative endeavors.<\/p>\n
\n\t“This bill is modeled on legislation that works effectively in other jurisdictions such as the U.K., Europe and Singapore. There have been wild claims that it will create an 'internet filter,' 'break' the internet or prevent legitimate uses of the internet. International experience shows that this is simply nonsense and fear mongering—last time I looked, the U.K. had a perfectly well functioning internet.<\/p>\n
\n\t“We look forward to seeing the legislation put into effect both to demonstrate that these fears are unfounded and to begin reducing the levels of illegal downloading in Australia.<\/p>\n
\n\t“This bill is part of a series of measures being put in place by government and industry to educate the public about the problems created by online piracy and where they can find legitimate ways to get access to the content they love,” Freudenstein concluded.<\/p>\n
\n\tInternet Australia, meanwhile, commented: "Blocking websites to stop alleged 'piracy' is like using a machine gun to shoot rabbits. The risk of collateral damage needs to be considered. In 2013 it was reported that ASIC 'inadvertently' blocked access to around 250,000 innocent websites when attempting to block one or two particular sites it alleged were being used to defraud people.
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\n\tInternet Australia respects the intellectual property rights of the creators of content. We just object to the use of site blocking legislation as a measure too extreme. No convincing evidence has been provided by rights holders to prove their claims of massive financial loss. We don't even know the true extent of unlawful downloading happening in this country.
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\n\tWe call for content to be made available speedily, at reasonable cost and we argue that the community needs to be educated about the reasons why piracy is a breach of someone else's rights.
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\n\tWe support the Copyright Notice Scheme Code which is about to be introduced. This is the first step in educating people. The Copyright Notice Scheme will see ISP's sending up to three written warnings to households where downloading of pirated content is alleged to be occurring."
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SYDNEY: The Australian Senate has passed the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015, which allows for the blocking of websites that may facilitate piracy, with Foxtel, among other TV and film outfits, welcoming the move. The new law allows content producers and copyright holders to seek court injunctions to block Australians' access to international sites …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-top-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n