piracy

News

• ACTA will diminish Australia's digital economy: legal expert

  The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), if adopted by Australia, could have major effect on innovation, the digital economy and competition with the country, according to an Australian legal expert.

• Monday Grok: Copyright — it’s only theft when it’s someone else’s work

  No sooner had the dust settled on the SOPA debate — a bad law the tech sector did a good job of torpedoing — than the nerdlingers were up in arms once again about copyright theft. But it's not what you think.

• The real reasons why SOPA and PIPA are real bad

  Following last week's Backspin, reader Alex Gonzales (Sweetwater, Texas) wrote to me: "Just read your SOPA article and I guess I'm just not seeing the big picture. If the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) could put an end to online piracy and stop a lot of those damn viruses, maybe even stop hackers -- what's bad about that? You say bad for business, bad for Internet -- but how? How is stopping/policing the bad stuff on the Internet bad? Give me some real reasons as to why [SOPA/PIPA] is bad. And don't tell me to go read the SOPA/PIPA bills in their entirety."

• Federal government quietly changes copyright document

  The Attorney’s General Department (AGD) has made unannounced changes to its latest discussion paper on copyright, removing a proposal for a streamlined process for copyright owners to access user details from ISPs for legal reasons

• System to notify consumers of Web piracy

  Hollywood studios, recording labels and internet service providers have created a program to alert internet subscribers when their accounts are used to access movies, songs and other content that entertainment companies consider unauthorised.

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  Three strikes file sharing bill passed in New Zealand

  The Australian entertainment industry may still be in talks with internet service providers (ISPs) about movie privacy but in New Zealand, some groups are celebrating the passing of an illegal file sharing bill.

• In pictures: iiNet issues piracy discussion paper

  Aims to encourage legitimate use of online content

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  Movie piracy costs Aus economy $1.37 billion in 12 months: AFACT

  The economic impact of movie piracy equated to $1.37 billion in lost revenue to the Australian economy and 6,100 jobs forgone over the 12 months to July 2010, according to a new report from the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT).

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  Software association paid $57K in 2010 to piracy whistleblowers

  In 2010, the Software and Information Industry Association received 157 reports of alleged corporate end user software piracy.  Of the 157 reports, 42 (or 27 per cent) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue. Of these 16 qualified for rewards totaling $57,500.

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  Reports of software piracy on the rise: BSA

  The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has announced the results of its ‘Feeling uncomfortable at work’ campaign, with the number of Australian workers who reported piracy in their workplace increasing by 17 times.

• The cloud will ‘change piracy’: BSAA

  Moving software to the cloud will have an impact on the piracy industry, according to co-chair of the Business Software Alliance of Australia (BSAA), Clayton Noble.

• Police crack down on counterfeit goods

  The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have embarked on a major crackdown of counterfeit goods, including pirated software, computers and CDs and DVDs, in a move hailed by as a victory by software companies such as Microsoft and representatives of the music and film and TV industries.

• BSAA quadruples dob-in-a-pirate bounty, launches ad campaign

  A new ad campaign and a quadrupling of its pirate bounty are the latest tools to be deployed by the Business Software Alliance of Australia (BSAA) in its ongoing fight against software piracy.

• Only 11 per cent of BitTorrent use is legitimate: Study

  The University of Ballarat has published a research paper claiming 89 per cent of BitTorrent files it studied during a certain period were confirmed to infringe copyright, a result immediately hailed by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft as a victory in its war against file sharing.

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  Conroy, Smith and Ludlam to debate on ICT in August

  The key ICT political figures in the Federal Election are expected to go head to head in a debate at the National Press Club on 10 August.