Parliament passes Internet Piracy Law

1 July, 2015

Parliament has passed into law the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Act 2015, [OB1] which is a legal attempt to curb Internet piracy by blocking overseas websites that are set up to infringe copyright.

Rights holders are able to seek a Federal Court order to block websites that have the "primary purpose" of facilitating copyright infringement. If the court grants an order, Australian Internet providers such as Telstra and Optus will have to disable access to the infringing location.

The act has been welcomed by the Copyright Agency Viscopy, whose CEO Murray St Leger said he applauded both the major parties’ support for the legislation. He likened it to a similar mechanism to block websites recently granted to the British Publishers Association to take down infringing sites distributing millions of ebooks.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the bill had been poorly worded and the act was too general in its application, with “the potential down the track is for the scope to be broadened and for the extremely loose and poorly defined language in the bill to be exploited as well.”