The Australian government’s review of copyright enforcement measures aims to ensure that responses to infringement are “appropriate, effective and proportionate.”
The Attorney-General’s Department released an issues paper for public consultation late 2022, presenting a golden opportunity for rightsholders to explain why measures they fought so hard for are no longer fit for purpose. Or at least that’s how things usually play out.
Leading With The Positives
A wide range of stakeholders filed submissions during the public consultation but since movie and TV show companies feature most prominently in online enforcement actions, their framing of the current piracy situation is of particular interest.
The ‘Australian Film/TV Bodies’ submission is the work of mostly American companies including Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner, plus local studio Village Roadshow, cinema groups and distributors. No other rightsholders have more experience of blocking injunctions.
The overarching positive tone in the studio-led submission comes as no surprise. It carefully highlights how good industry advice and wise decisions by the Australian government led to positive reforms, not least the “highly effective” no-fault site blocking regime introduced in 2015. Coupled with the market “making content readily available online for reasonable prices” the Australian copyright system supported the market and a “potential free-for-all” was avoided.
The clear message in the submission is that the studios requested the right measures and since the government’s judgement was solid, everything went according to plan. Changes requested as part of the current consultation aren’t to fix any past shortcomings, the submission suggests, they’re about meeting future challenges using a tried-and-tested approach.
Good News / Good Cop
The companies behind the ‘Australian Film/TV Bodies’ submission say their use of Australia’s site-blocking provisions has resulted in the blocking of over 2,000 infringing domains since 2015. Citing government research demonstrating the efficacy of these interventions, successes are clear.
“In 2015 lawful online consumption of TV was the lowest of all entertainment c
