Rights holders hail new anti-piracy bill, but told to make own changes

A number of Australian copyright holders and associations hailed the passing of the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill through the Senate on Monday night. They said it sent a message of how detrimental online piracy had been to the Australian creative sector.

APRA AMCOS, which played a lead role in the arts and media groups which lobbied for the law, said it is “satisfied” that the Bill takes into account the need to protect the interests of its 87,000+ Australian and New Zealand songwriter and composer members.

APRA AMCOS CEO Brett Cottle AM said that allowing copyright holders the chance to apply to the Federal Court to stop access to overseas piracy sites through Australian ISPs would have far-reaching consequences.

“It will give to creative industries a means to fight back, it will assist in changing the behaviour of Australian consumers and, most importantly, it will send a powerful, practical and symbolic message to the artists and creators of Australia,” Cottle pointed out.

“Australia's creative industries have been waiting for a very long time for Parliament to provide an expression of support and respect for their work and their place in the life of the nation."

Vanessa Hutley, GM of Music Rights Australia said that illegal sites had continued to flourish despite the fact "Australian consumers have over 30 licensed online music sites to choose from across a range of platforms and at price points, including free on advertising supported services.”

Now, she added, “the creative community an effective tool to disrupt illegal offshore sites which make millions of dollars from advertising but give nothing back to the artists whose work they systematically exploit on a massive scale."

The Copyright Agency also applauded the passing of the Bill, saying that pirate sites “earn money for themselves through referral fees and advertising but the content creators earn nothing.” It made it harder for new talent to break through, and for established names to earn a living.

CEO Murray St Leger pointed out, “It’s not just the performing arts industries, such as film and music, which are hurt by online theft. In some book genres, online theft is eliminating opportunities for emerging authors to get published in Australia.” St. Ledger said the average annual income for authors in Australia dropped from $23,000 a year in 2001 to $11,100 in 2008.

But consumer and media rights advocates suggested that copyright holders also held the solution to battling online piracy. Choice emphasised that content availability and price remained an issue.

Gizmodo editor Luke Hopewell told SBS that while the arrival of services as Netflix made illegal downloads less relevant, "consumers are still noticing those catalogues aren't as full as they could be.”

Yesterday Roy Morgan Research revealed that 1 million Australians have accessed Netflix since it launched at the end of March. The American firm is an easy leader in the streaming stakes, with a tenfold greater draw than its Australian rivals.

Foxtel and Seven’s Presto is in second place with a distant 97,000 users. Nine and Fairfax Media’s Stan has 91,000, Quickflix 43,000 and Foxtel Play 40,000.