Illicit Websites To Be Blocked Under New Piracy Reforms

Illegal downloaders of films and TV shows will be spared "harsh penalties" under legislative reforms being presented to cabinet today, but Australians could find their access to popular sites used to facilitate piracy blocked altogether.

As Fairfax reports, in presenting their "minimalist" proposed changes, Attorney-General George Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull have shifted their crosshairs away from the average citizen and towards the websites that make their moral transgressions possible. The streamlined, specific submission is a far cry from July's "extended authorisation liability" suggestions, covered in the government's earlier discussion paper on copyright infringement, when Turnbull was forced to admit only two months later that the proposal was too broad to be implemented feasibly.

The new submission being tabled is at least a little surprising and, if passed, will no doubt be something of a sore spot for rights holders, being in contravention to earlier projected penalties for wayward internet users that included being fined, having their connection speed throttled, or total disconnection, and despite Brandis' earlier assertion that he is "very concerned that the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders and content creators are being compromised by that activity". 

Instead, the ministers appear to be focusing on access restriction — an undeniably successful exercise in the UK — in their submission, which, according to Fairfax, also highlights written warnings as the most likely path of recourse against offenders. If the legislative changes are successful in being passed, then content owners and rights holders would be able to take out court orders obliging providers to block access to websites hosting the illegitimate content.

This itself raises several other issues, not least of all the problems with illegitimate content appearing on legitimate sites, such as YouTube, as well as VPN workarounds and the fact that several torrenting sites have multiple redirects.

A partial explanation for scaling back pursuit of illegal downloaders is the financial minefield it opens up — previous discussions between rights holders and service providers hit a wall when the parties couldn't agree on the cost split for such a scheme. Such a long-reaching stand-off calls into question the likelihood of the disparate sides being able to agree deeply enough to settle on the submission's suggested voluntary code, to be jointly crafted and then registered with the Australian Communications and Media Authority, though alternative options are limited.

However, habitual pirates aren't yet totally in the clear; the government is retaining the right to implement further legal redress against "inveterate" offenders as a — to use the government's term — "big stick" deterrent for the behaviour.