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Aussie Pirates Have Another Year Not To Worry About Warnings

Posted by msmash on from the what-makes-Australia-a-delightful-place dept.

An anonymous reader shares an article on TorrentFreak: Internet pirates in Australia may now have at least another year, possibly longer, not to worry about a "three strikes" style system landing on their shores. According to Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton, copyright holders and ISPs will give the new site blocking regime a chance to get established before revisiting the graduated response. Somewhat explains why this gentleman -- if he was indeed downloading copyright infringing content -- has been able to get away with all the torrenting he has done.

25 comments

  1. Pirates! ARRRRGGGGG! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nt

    1. Re: Pirates! ARRRRGGGGG! by easyTree · · Score: 1

      Jim Lad!
      There's treasure buried in the accounts of anyone who feels free to partake of the wonders of modern technology.

      --
      Requiem for the American Dream
  2. Election time. by mjwx · · Score: 4, Informative

    What is important to note here is that within the next 12 months Australia will hold a federal election.

    The increasing unpopularity of the Turnbull government (which was really just the Abbott government with a new hat) means that there will likely be a change in parties even if Bill Shorten isn't replaced.

    The media conglomerates are considerably more chummy with the current Liberal party (dont let the name confuse you, they're conservatives) than they do with the opposition (Labor party). Doubly so as one of the primary drivers is Rupert Murdoch's media empire which has not won any favours with Labor in recent years.

    With Labor back in power, we can expect the same thing that's been happening for years to continue. It will be discussed, papers will be filed, faults will be found with perspective new laws and it'll have to be put off until Parliament sits again in a few months, rinse and repeat.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    1. Re:Election time. by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      It won't last that long, I predict an epic battle approaching, on Sept 19.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    2. Re:Election time. by dwywit · · Score: 2

      You're awfully confident that Murdoch won't repeat previous strategies. And, current poll results notwithstanding, memories of the Rudd/Gillard disasters are still fresh.

      Turnbull may be losing popularity, but I haven't seen anything like the divisiveness we had under Abbott, Rudd, and to a lesser extent, Gillard. Both parties need that divisiveness to polarise the vote and keep the public rhetoric flowing, so they can concentrate on the swinging/undecided vote. If neither of them can whip up a frenzy, then the election will favour the incumbents.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    3. Re:Election time. by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Labor aren't much better with "think of the children" Conroy running the show. The Greens did block certain legislation but may face voter backlash over senate voting rules.

      The Pirates have their own party. But I think I'll vote for the Science Party; who wouldn't want to live in a 21st century metropolis named after Alan Turing? :)

    4. Re:Election time. by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      I'd expect a modest swing to Labor in conservative WA, where Barnett may be running out of puff and there's no scare campaign over a mining tax this time.
      Apathy for Palaczuk may have offset anger over Newman, so again, smaller than expected swings in QLD, maybe a handful of seats but not a landslide like at the state level.
      SA will lose seats over manufacturing but Labor's vote in 2013 there held up reasonably.
      Vics were never pro-Abbott, so not too many seats will change hands.
      Tassie swung hard to the Coalition last time and will swing back somewhat.

      So at the end of the day, the election will be decided in NSW where many prominent government members reside and at a state level Baird is popular.

    5. Re:Election time. by mjwx · · Score: 1

      You're awfully confident that Murdoch won't repeat previous strategies. And, current poll results notwithstanding, memories of the Rudd/Gillard disasters are still fresh.

      I'm absolutely confident that Murdoch will try and fail.

      The Abottbull government has been an absolute shambles from the word go. Murdoch may be good at spin, but he cant work miracles. The only thing keeping Turnbull from dropping in the polls has been the relentless media assault on Bill Shorten, the problem with relentless media assaults is that they become passe and then get ignored as people start to realise they've heard it all before.

      The difference is that in 2013, Murdoch had to sell an unkown to an angry populace. Now they've got to sell a failure to an angry and aggrieved populace. This means the usual spin tactics will be completely useless as they have to try to make Shorten more unpopular than an extremerly unpopular government. Shouting "Boats, Boats, Boats, Boaty, boat boat boat" wont cut it this time.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    6. Re:Election time. by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Labor aren't much better with "think of the children" Conroy running the show. The Greens did block certain legislation but may face voter backlash over senate voting rules.

      The Pirates have their own party. But I think I'll vote for the Science Party; who wouldn't want to live in a 21st century metropolis named after Alan Turing? :)

      That's not such a bad thing. Conroy over 6 years in the Rudd/Gillard government got repeatedly smacked down by his own party for the filter. Each time it was proposed the Labor backbench, not just the greens, threatened to revolt. I dont even think it made it to parliament to even be voted on.

      Besides that, the current shadow communications minister is Jason Claire and he seems a hell of a lot more competent and clued in over it. The Labor/Green govt always runs on populist policies, rather than ideological ones like the LNP. Its good in the fact that they wont pursue something that is outright dangerous, but bad because often it means they dont do much at all.

      I've got a hell of a lot more trust in Claire than Turnbull and Fifield who have been doing their best to destroy the NBN and help Murdoch. Conroy has effectively been neutered by Labor.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    7. Re:Election time. by dwywit · · Score: 1

      Murdoch has a pretty good track record so far, of affecting voting patterns. His spin has worked miracles in the past - how do you think Abbott got elected, unless you concede that labor lost the election, rather than the LNP won it?

      As to shambles, the Ruddllardrudd circus will be a casebook study in how not to run a government - their ill-considered policies resulted in deaths in the insulation scheme, memories of that don't fade quickly, and it's an easy way to whip up a frenzy - "remember the deaths under the insulation scheme? Do you want more of that?". Perfect tabloid fodder. People also don't tend to forget that level of division within a party, and it's an easy target for the other side - "look at them, they can't make up their mind, do they want Rudd or Gillard or Rudd!" (and now the prick wants their support to be UN Sec-Gen. Really?)

      Relentless media assaults, and the diminishing returns therefrom, work both ways. Labor's shadow ministers are also pretty good at relentless media assault - it's not a clear advantage for either side.

      I don't think the population is angry or aggrieved - as I said above, I haven't seen the divisiveness in this parliament that was present under Rudd, Gillard, or Abbott, and if the voters aren't angry, that'll favour the incumbents.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  3. Something not quite right about that title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Aussie Pirates Too Lazy To Use A VPN Have Another Year Not To Worry About Warnings

    FTFY

    1. Re:Something not quite right about that title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      VPN service, or honeypot?

  4. Only a matter of time by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    It is only a matter of time before access to the Internet will be only allowed by "approved" devices, and things like VPNs will be outlawed. It is coming.

    1. Re: Only a matter of time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Piracy is already illegal in many countries and that doesn't stop anyone.

    2. Re: Only a matter of time by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Worked great for landlocked countries. There is virtually no piracy in Switzerland.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. The ISP, protecting copyright cartels by fustakrakich · · Score: 0

    Let's hope we can learn to route around them in the next year

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  6. They just don't get it, do they? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    They just don't get it. You can't stop people from filesharing. You block one avenue, they'll find another one you didn't think of, or that you can't detect. It gets draconian enough, people will go back to using SneakerNet, and just pass around hard drives and flash drives. They need to just give up and accept it as a fact of life and stop wasting so much time and energy on it. Don't these silly politicians have anything better to do? Have they solved all the REAL crime problems? The homelessness problem? Is unemployment at zero percent, and everyone has enough to eat? Is there no more war in the world? Seriously, there are more important problems to worry about solving than some people downloading movies, TV shows, or some music, and the entertainment industry makes so much money that seriously they don't really need a few more pennies squeezed out of people. Honestly I think that the 'content creators' who are complaining so loudly about 'pirates' are probably the ones who aren't creating anything anyone wants in the first place, and they've deluded themselves into believing that it's filesharing that's the reason. Movies these days make hundreds of millions of dollars at the theatres, and that's not even counting when they're released on disc for home use. Nobody buys CDs anymore, they either stream everything or buy single tracks for pennies. Most TV shows are throw-aways, and the networks should be happy people are willing to go to the trouble to download them to watch in the first place. Seriously, these people need to lighten up.

    1. Re:They just don't get it, do they? by Moof123 · · Score: 2

      Yep. Look at Cuba where there no is no internet as such. Sneaker net becomes the default.

      Personally I just wish the media companies would not make the real deal so lousy. All the crap you are forced to watch or fiddle a way around to watch s DVD or Blu-Ray is really obnoxious. I should never get a "That operation is currently prohibited" message.

      Pay for "Ad-Free" Hulu? Only some of the shows are actually ad-free. WTF?

      I really want to shield my kid from as much advertising crap as I can as long as I can, or at least until he has some basic critical thinking skills, but it is very hard to actually get get around ads, previews, etc.

      But guess what? If I pirate the same stuff it is already stripped of this crap. Being a law abiding citizen really makes me and many others feel like real chumps.

    2. Re:They just don't get it, do they? by kheldan · · Score: 2

      Put an antenna on your house for free OTA TV, get TiVo, turn on the 30-second skip feature, teach your kid how to use it to skip past commercials, and he'll be shielded from about 95% of all the advertisements. You can't really get around product placement in the shows themselves though but it's better than nothing.

      --
      Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  7. Bonzer by Hognoxious · · Score: 0

    Bonzer, mate! Chuck another abo in the eski and get me a barbie while yer up, you bludging bastard.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  8. Another year until Aussies had to buy a vpn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the 40 bucks or so for a vpn is worth it anyway.

  9. Copyright by monkeyman.kix · · Score: 1

    So this: "...Somewhat explains why this gentleman -- if he was indeed downloading copyright infringing content -- has been able to get away with all the torrenting he has done."

    As of course the implication is that if you use data, it MUST be torrents of illegal material. This made me a bit upset. Why is it when someone uses data it must be illegal? There is plenty of free and non free content on the net that one could use and download in a day that could easily be over a terabyte. and ALL of it is legally obtained. Why the accusation?

    1. Re:Copyright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because he actually listed what he downloaded and it was basically tv shows.

      I mean sure, he might have paid for them all.

    2. Re:Copyright by PhunkySchtuff · · Score: 2

      Some of it was likely legal, some of it was likely to be illegal torrents...
      From the actual article:

      And then the downloads began: 14 seasons of MythBusters; 24 seasons of The Simpsons; the entire Wikipedia database; Microsoft software for his job; updates for his Xbox games; and "a lot of random other stuff". He also synced all his Spotify playlists offline.

      Now, I'm sure it's possible to get some of that content legally, but at around $30/season for TV content through iTunes (just as an example, not saying this is where it came from), you're looking at over $1000 worth of content there.

      As an amusing fact, the free data Sunday ran on the same day that Daylight Saving time ended, meaning he actually had 25 hours in which to suck down unlimited 4GX mobile data...

      --
      Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
  10. Kept at Bay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They have another year before it lands ashore of Australia because the Pirates have been keeping this system at Bay.