Industry told to create piracy code by April with copyright infringers to escape harsh penalties
Turnbull
The Government has shunted the onus of tackling piracy back to the copyright holders giving them 120 days to agree a “industry code” before they look to pass any legislation, after an extensive consultation period with industry.
Today Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull and Attorney General George Brandis issued a joint release announcing the move, as well as planned changes to the Copyright Act to allow rights holders to ask internet service providers to block access to websites operated outside Australia which give access to their content unlawfully.
In a letter to “industry leaders” today the ministers say the code must be registered with the Australian communications and Media Authority (ACMA), and include a “process to notify consumers when a copyright breach has occurred and provide information on how they can gain access to legitimate content”.
Poor Malcolm has become a shell of the good person he once was.
I only hope the honest, social progressive and intelligent Malcolm makes a triumphant return.
The only thing that can stop piracy is content providers like Foxtel waking up and realising that their prospective customers don’t want to be screwed around with subscriptions and unwanted channels.
People just want to be able to buy the content they want and pay the same rate that people overseas are paying. These aren’t criminals looking to hurt the content makers. These are mums and dads and regular hard working Australians that have the choice to either buy an overpriced outdated PayTV subscription, or simply go online and download the shows they want easily.
Imagine that you want to eat an apple which has a value of a dollar. But it’s impossible to just buy a single apple, you have to spend ten dollars to buy an entire fruit basket, with bananas and pears and oranges. Unfortunately for you, you only like apples.
Now imagine that there is a magic apple tree where every time an apple is picked it is replaced instantly. The tree doesn’t lose apples, because you’re making a copy of the apple you want. The fruit-basket salesmen don’t miss out on a sale because you don’t want the deal they’re selling.
So what do you do to satisfy your love of apples? Buy a fruit basket or just pick an apple off the tree?
And what solution makes moral and financial sense to the fruitbasket salesmen? To offer apples at one dollar, or to cut down the magic tree and prosecute all those who picked from it?
Nice one Hank – I particularly liked your apple analogy.
It’s called Apple TV.
Goes with your apple analogy nicely.
@Hank you really need to try iTunes.
Not a single use of Hollywood’s beloved (and factually incorrect in Australia) “Illegal downloads” mantra.
Good job.
Oh, and I’m sure one of you smarty pants marketing kings can come up with a way to neatly package a VNP service that doesn’t keep logs and is hosted in a country with iron tight privacy laws.
Idiot proof it and flog it to an Aussie public desperate to reclaim a bit of privacy online and you may just make a dollar or three.
You won’t even need to take out advertising, reddit, twitter and torrentfreak will take care of that with the right gentle nudge. If you’re feeling particularly frisky, provoke a few piracy opponents to condemn you and the rest will be $$$.
@hank your website seems to be down bro.
Without Pirate sites and VPN’s we wouldn’t have seen Presto, Stan or even Netflix enter the market in the past 12 months.
Competition is healthy. Turnbull gets it. So do the ISP’s and the broadcasters.
Everyone knows it has to change.