It seems the Coalition’s draconian internet policy is being driven by Attorney General, George Brandis, with Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, taking a far more measured approach is an interview yesterday on ABC Radio.
While Turnbull stated in the interview that Australians should not steal online content, he did also acknowledge that Australians are being ripped off and urged copyright holders to discourage piracy by making their content readily available at prices similar to those offered overseas:
…there is an obligation on the content owners, if their concerns are to be taken seriously and they are by government, and if governments are to take action to help them prevent piracy, then they’ve got to play their part which is to make their content available universally and affordably and… if you want people to, if you want to discourage piracy, the best thing you can do, and the music industry is a very good example of this, the way they’ve responded, the best thing you can do is to make your content available globally, universally and affordably.
In other words, you just keep on reducing and reducing and reducing the incentive for people to do the wrong thing.
But everybody has to play their part and the content owners in the debate that’s going to follow on this discussion paper, they’re the ones that have got to justify why they are charging more to Australians. They’ve got to make their case too.
According to The SMH, Turnbull also stuck up for internet service providers (ISPs), claiming that they (and users) should not be required to bear the cost of enforcing copyright:
“There are some people in the content industry who believe that the costs should be borne in whole or part by the telecommunications sector – by the ISPs,” he said. “I don’t find that a persuasive argument.”
Turnbull also reportedly stated that he stood by his previous support of the High Court’s decision in 2012, which found that internet service providers could not be found liable for authorising an act by a subscriber that infringes copyright. Back in 2012, Turnbull said the following in relation to that decision:
“I think the High Court came to the right decision and I really welcome it… It is very, very, very difficult if not impossible for someone that is just selling connectivity, just providing bandwidth to then be monitoring what people are doing.”
Hopefully, Turnbull’s more balanced view holds enough sway in the Coalition party room to dissuade the Government from implementing draconian copyright measures.
It’s also nearly one year to the day since the IT Pricing Inquiry – the Parliamentary Committee tasked with finding why Aussies pay so much for digital-related content – released its 150-page report to the Government on how to reduce the so-called “Australia Tax” (i.e. price gouging). The report recommended, among other things, an end to geo-blocking of content and amendments to the Copyright Act to allow parallel imports and circumvention of technological protection measures that control geographic market segmentation (summary of report here).
To date, the Abbott Government has not addressed any of the issues outlined by the IT Pricing Inquiry.
For once, it would be nice to see the Government act in the best interest of consumers, rather than siding with rent-seeking copyright owners that continually refuse to make content readily available and rip consumers off.
