Australian ISPs Reject Calls To Police Their Users 86
jon_cooper writes "After recent setbacks in the RIAA's lawsuits, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has decided to try a different approach in Australia - they want ISPs to do their dirty work for them. Australian ISPs, though, have soundly rejected calls from AFACT to slow down or terminate user accounts that AFACT has determined are being used to distribute copyrighted works. Telstra (one of the larger ISPs in question) had this to say: 'We do not believe it is up to the ISPs to be judge, jury and executioner in relation to the issue when the content owners have any number of legal avenues to pursue infringements.'"
Re:Give it 1 year. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Same ISPs as in the U.S.? (Score:5, Informative)
Because it was the national incumbent Testra still own most of the infrastructure and has control over the Australian backbone that is leases to ISPs at exorbitant rates ,
Most Australian broadband plans are either metered or capped .
Mark Pesce an American that Lives in Australia (although we call him an Aussie now since hes applied for Citizenship ) who was also one of the creators of VRML did a great piece in the Meblorne Age why Aussies hate Telstra
http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/why-we-all
Re:Same ISPs as in the U.S.? (Score:3, Informative)
AOHell gave up and sold their user base to Primus Telecommunications, who may be American owned, but not controlled as such.
ISPs won't be bullied by ARIA (australian RIAA) etc. as Aussie's are top pirates (forcing local TV networks to not seasonally delay American imports), and pay a hell of a lot for unfiltered internets. Considering internet here is sold in bandwidth quotas any limiting action above that is considered unacceptable by users and (some) ISP owners alike.
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Informative)
So when Australian networks treat a show like garbage, downloading gives you a better product with more reliable timing. The counter for this is that we are now getting some shows within weeks of the original airing. Californication is about two weeks delayed. This helps protect the ad revenue.
Copyright infringement != theft (Score:2, Informative)
Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (Score:2, Informative)
maybe like what verizon [slashdot.org] did?
remember people, copyright infringement != theft
Re:Hmm... (Score:2, Informative)
exactly, do you pirate TV shows? ... you have also been able to record from the TV for a very long time
In fact, it has only been a recent development where recording a TV show to VHS or similar *hasn't* been illegal in Australia. The only provision for personal media recording used to be for live performances.
From memory, this changed sometime in 2006
Futurama (Score:2, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)