Australian Government Moving Forward With Anti-Piracy Mandate For ISPs
angry tapir (1463043) writes Australia is moving closer to a regime under which ISPs will be forced to block access to websites whose "dominant purpose" is to facilitate copyright violations. A secret government discussion paper (PDF) has been leaked and proposes a system of website blocking and expanded liability for ISPs when it comes to "reasonable steps that can be taken ... to discourage or reduce online copyright infringement."
Spineless citizenry deserves an oppressive government. Don't worry they'll keep you safe in your digital cage.
When will you learn that this kind of law will not work? Just have a look at what is being done in the UK. They tried this, realised that blocking sites is pretty much trying like trying to empty the oceans using a bucket full of holes and changed their methods to posting letters to the users if they are accused of pirating in the hope of getting the parents involved.
They are going to block google search and youtube? The two largest offenders..
That would help to put a stop to this kind of crap just as it did in the USA. When I was in NYC, it was amazing the energy the movement had. They've lost some inertia, but their actions have had a lasting effect.
Couldn't agree more.
Aussies have never stood up to government, and the media is fawning and complicit.
Most Australians vote either Liberal Party of Labor Party and never change their vote, despite what they do to them.
No one stands up for their rights. The cowardice and apathy of my fellow Australians is depressing. The government deserves to screw them all over. People who won't speak up for their rights don't deserve any.
the wording on this is interesting. "Expanded Safe Harbour" is the way they spell "more liability" for ISPs.
Much in the way the British porn filtering law introduced "opt out" (to nannying) but spelled it "opt in" (to unfiltered* access, now requiring identification along with an implicit admission of being a pervert).
* Mostly. The IWF censorship is still there, of course.
Bring on Tor....
As an Australian, my biggest objection to this is the huge waste of money to set this up, maintain it and enforce it.
Personally, I've got a $4.00 per month VPN. Let's see, what country shall my computer be in today... :-)
"Tackling Piracy" is the cover story, but it's just for the government to grab control of the free internet. A little bit at the time, they come up with reasons to censor this, ban that, people too stupid to see what is happening. Until one day, you have nothing left of the internet as we know it today.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
Did anyone notice that *they* used the correct term "copyright infringement" while the story submitter used the incorrect term "piracy" ? It's usually the opposite happening.
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
Who decides what is reasonable? Remember the i-net case where the copyright protection organisation sued an ISP for not terminating its service contract with a known IP pirate?
Australians fight quite hard for continued protection of principles like 'a fair go', 'job security' and other nation-building ideals but actual freedom not so much. The problem is that the Aussie government isn't limited by a bill of rights and doesn't promise its citizens any rights to freedom. Since the 'war on terror', the government has been busy writing laws to ensure the few freedoms Aussie people have inherited can be deliberately withheld at any time without due process.
If this gets pushed through most aussies will just cut the cord as the cost for digital content is beyond insanity in Aus.
Only took a 6 figure donation from village roadshow.
New RED TAPE!
There is zero green tape in this.
Smart Australian Companies competing on a level playing field. Nope - ISP's now become Regulated ISP (RISP's).
There is no tangible benefit in Australia's National Interest here.
Lowers productivity (tick)
Increases business overheads (tick)
Angers voters (tick)
Looses votes (tick)
Looses Australian jobs (tick).
Taxpayers picking up the tab for CIVIL matters (tick)
Tis a steaming pile of crap. I want to see 'Uptake of VPN and projected current account invisible losses' charts and projections.
Once Australians all have VPN's, local IT will have a similar life expectancy as the local car manufacturing 'Industry'.
...let alone packets.
At least we still have access to websites and freedom of the digital world unlike you sissies who just lost everything but aol and Yahoo have fun reading what your government wants you to and not what the world is discussing. Oh wait y'all never used internet anyways right? Y'all are the outbacks alway outback.
and as the Australian Government is little more than a puppet of corporate Australia, eliminating competition is easy.
Last time, the then Labor government insisted that the two biggest ISPs put blocks in place, even though the legislation didn't get through the parliament.
The end result: amongst others, a school tuck-shop (canteen) got blocked. Those nefarious parents were maliciously placing orders for kids lunches online!
And, less than a day after it started, school kids could tell you how to bypass the blocks.
I've never pirated a movie, for the lack of bandwidth, and the lack of desire. I've never pirated music ... much the same reasons.
I've got a 30GB a month ADSL2+ connection, and better things to do with it.
But I resent the huge amount of bullshit that governments and movie and music companies put out about piracy, to the point where I won't even buy discs of either until they fall off the "peak interest" of being the latest thing out. When it's cheap, I'll think about buying it.
A lot of the time I won't buy it even then as a direct result of the crap that they all spout.
Don't blame me, it's usually 2 in the morning when I post
Australia is obliged under its free trade agreements with the United States, Singapore and Korea (not yet ratified) to provide a legal incentive to ISPs to cooperate with rights holders to prevent infringement on their systems and networks.
And, ladies and gentlement, there you have it. Again. Completely bypassing the democratic process, FTA's trump national legislation. And anyone that thinks that Singapore and Korea are actually the ones pressing Australia to ramp up their pro-copyright industry efforts is naive. It's just a little smokescreen. So Who's Your Daddy?!! Good ole Uncle Sam (MPAA/RIAA/USTR) is. Bend over, and take it like a man Aussies!
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.