Slashdot Mirror
Australia Pushes Ahead With Website Blocking In Piracy Fight
angry tapir writes As part of its crackdown on unauthorized downloading of copyright material, the Australian government will push ahead with the introduction of a scheme that will allow rights holders to apply for court orders to force ISPs to block websites. (Previously Slashdot noted that the Australian government had raised such a scheme as a possibility).
They were considering punishing users (three strikes and you're out type shenanigans) but their popularity is sinking fast and I see this as an alternative that they're thinking "We know it won't work, and the public know this so they won't care, but we can say we're doing something to the interested industry lobby groups."
Never happened. True story.
I for one am looking forward to .gov.au sites being blocked by court order because they contain copyright images being used without permission. [Rights holders, start your inspections now!]
The Australian federal government has already proven their departments can't be trusted when it comes to blocking sites e.g. they incorrectly blocked an IP address responsible for hosting multiple sites. They can't be trusted when it comes to limiting the scope of blocking. I don't see any information giving the web-site holder the option to contest the charges; defend their ability to stay online; or protect innocent sites caught up in a block whose scope is too wide
The government is also proposing graduated response and the ISPs will be required to facilitate discovery of the identity of IP address's account holder. Once the rights holder has this information, it would then likely be used by to threaten the account holder to either pay a 'fine' (way in excess of the value of the copied material) or be sued in court.
The rights holders also expect the ISPs to foot all or part of the bill, even though the ISPs aren't responsible for the actions of their users.