At a time when Australian businesses are struggling to remain internationally competitive, it makes absolutely no sense to drive-up their input costs. Yet that is exactly what the Coalition’s new internet policy is likely to do to both businesses and consumers. From Business Spectator’s Mark Gregory:
New government legislation will add about $100 million a year to the cost of providing broadband in Australia and this may mean that your annual internet bill could rise by about 5 per cent.
The cost to Australian business will be substantial. Telcos will be given the onerous task of ‘stopping the bytes’: identifying pirates and additional compliance costs. The rest of Australian business will have to bear the cost of monitoring corporate networks to prevent illegal file-sharing, and public Wi-Fi providers could be fined if their service is used for illegal file-sharing…
And why is the government taking punitive action against the telecommunications industry when similar laws of inspection and disclosure of illegal goods are not in force against shipping and other transportation companies? Because compliance will add a significant cost and achieve very little.
Gregory critique is spot on. The Government’s plan to require ISPs to effectively police copyright – “secondary liability” – is a retrograde step and would substantially raise internet costs for all users. The proposal would effectively remove the burden of enforcement from the digital creators and the courts to ISPs, many of whom aren’t equipped to interpret copyright law, adjudicate on the facts, and impose appropriate penalties.
Gregory’s article goes on to highlight the many ways that Australian consumers are ripped-off by, among other things, extreme geo-blocking of digital content, which denies them access to content that is readily available internationally, or applies a specially marked-up price. This, of course, drives many towards piracy, as argued by comedian Louis CK in the video below:
Gregory also argues that the key to reducing piracy is to free-up the market for content, so that purchasing it legally is as convenient as illegally downloading from the internet:
To achieve this positive outcome the government will need to tackle antiquated business practices that enshrine anti-competitive outcomes including market segmentation, the Australia Tax and subscription access to digital content.
Unfortunately, the Government’s stance on copyright shows that Australia hasn’t moved on much from the days of the VCR, when it was illegal to to use them to record television programs. And as long as such an inflexible and draconian approach is taken, consumers will continue to be ripped-off and embrace alternatives, including unauthorised downloading of content over the internet.
