Music Groups Waste No Time Using Australia's New Copyright Law To Shut Down Stream Ripping Sites

Music Groups Waste No Time Using Australia's New Copyright Law To Shut Down Stream Ripping Sites

5 years ago
Anonymous $Dftgs0JzgE

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190111/10540541376/music-groups-waste-no-time-using-australias-new-copyright-law-to-shut-down-stream-ripping-sites.shtml

Late last year, after Australia proposed amending its copyright laws, which included some subtle language changes, the country approved the amendments and we immediately warned that this would be abused, feature-creeped, and otherwise utilized by the content industries to restrict access to the internet in favor of their own bottom lines. One of the subtle language changes mentioned above consisted of going from allowing site-blocking of sites where their "primary purpose" was infringing activity to allowing blocking of sites where their "primary effect" was infringing activity. This change was an important one, because it puts the onus for whether a site can be blocked on how users use the tool, rather than how it was intended to be used. And, of course, there is simply more subjectivity in "primary effect" than there is in "primary purpose", leading us to warn that this would be abused.

And, a mere few months later, the music industry is in court citing the new law to get approval to have ISPs block stream-ripping sites.

Music Groups Waste No Time Using Australia's New Copyright Law To Shut Down Stream Ripping Sites

Jan 15, 2019, 4:17am UTC
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190111/10540541376/music-groups-waste-no-time-using-australias-new-copyright-law-to-shut-down-stream-ripping-sites.shtml > Late last year, after Australia proposed amending its copyright laws, which included some subtle language changes, the country approved the amendments and we immediately warned that this would be abused, feature-creeped, and otherwise utilized by the content industries to restrict access to the internet in favor of their own bottom lines. One of the subtle language changes mentioned above consisted of going from allowing site-blocking of sites where their "primary purpose" was infringing activity to allowing blocking of sites where their "primary effect" was infringing activity. This change was an important one, because it puts the onus for whether a site can be blocked on how users use the tool, rather than how it was intended to be used. And, of course, there is simply more subjectivity in "primary effect" than there is in "primary purpose", leading us to warn that this would be abused. > And, a mere few months later, the music industry is in court citing the new law to get approval to have ISPs block stream-ripping sites.