EFA calls for halt on ISP Copyright Code

Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has reiterated its call for the ISP Copyright Code to be halted in light of new research suggesting that piracy is on the decline as streaming services grow in popularity.

Consumer group CHOICE last week published research showing that 59% of Australians are purchasing pay per view and subscription video services such as Netflix, up from 46% in 2014.

This has corresponded with a three-percentage-point increase in the number of Australians who never download or stream pirated movies or TV, to 70% from 67%.

Of the respondents subscribing to video streaming services who still engage in piracy, 33% said they are downloading much less since adopting a subscription service.

In addition, the research indicates that the government's plan to block access in Australia to known piracy sites may be an ineffective deterrent, with 54% of pirates stating that they'll simply find another unblocked site and 49% stating that they'll use a VPN or another method to skirt the block.

In response to the findings, EFA said the research confirms what most informed observers have been saying for some time — that the primary drivers of online piracy in Australia are price discrimination and a lack of timely availability to overseas media content.

The Copyright Code is a scheme involving ISPs sending 'education notices' to customers caught engaging in online piracy. The code was developed by the telecom industry in collaboration with rights holders, under the threat that the government would regulate such a requirement instead.

But the implementation of the code has stalled due to a dispute over whether ISPs or rights holders should bear the cost burden for sending the notices.

"The current government, which is ostensibly committed to deregulation, must accept the reality that finding a consensus on the cost burden of a copyright notice scheme is simply not possible," EFA Executive Director Jon Lawrence commented.

"It must also realise that legislating to impose such a scheme will only add another layer of unnecessary regulation on to Australia's ISP sector, which is already struggling with the government's overly hasty and inadequately prepared data retention legislation."

Image courtesy of Stephen Dann under CC