Following the passage in June of the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015, Foxtel is preparing to launch a legal case “in the coming months” to have piracy-related websites blocked in Australia.
Foxtel has told the ABC that it is currently receiving legal advice on “how best to put the legislation into effect” and expects to do so soon.
Under the new Act, copyright owners (and exclusive licensees) can apply to the Federal Court of Australia for an order requiring ISPs to block access to websites whose primary purpose is to infringing copyright or facilitate the infringement of copyright.
In considering Foxtel’s request, the Federal Court will be required to consider the proportionality of site blocking as a remedy, the flagrancy of the infringement, the impact on likely affected parties, and whether it is in the public interest to make a site blocking order.
While Foxtel’s legal action is understandable, given it wants to shore-up profits from its Pay TV service, I very much doubt that it will have much of an impact on Australian consumers.
As reported in June, the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) – which allow users to avoid geo-blocks by shifting to another virtual location via an encrypted tunnel – are already experiencing strong growth in Australia. And this trend is set to continue as the anti-piracy regime takes hold.
Then there is the massive growth in affordable video-on-demand services like Netfix, which are also experiencing strong growth in Australia after launching earlier this year. These services, when combined with a VPN or DNS changer to access the US catalogue, makes a Foxtel subscription look like very poor value for money for all but those who are addicted to sports.
You can’t fight the internet. And ultimately, Foxtel will find itself waging a losing war to make Australians pay exorbitant prices for a sub-standard product.
Thanks to new technologies and competition, Australians are finally becoming free to access global content at globally competitive prices.
