Despite Concerns, Piracy-Site Blocking Bill Through The Australian Senate

Thanks to Labor, soon everyone won't be able to get their weekly dose of Game Of Thrones.

Well, it's the beginning of the end for Australian internet piracy.

Yesterday, the Senate has voted to enact the controversial legislation which would block websites in an attempt to crack down on internet piracy.

After debating amendments all day, the legislation passed the Senate 37 votes to 13.

Via hkstrategies.com.au

The legislation will allow rights owners to block overseas websites which contain copyright infringing material or facilitate access to copyright infringing material. This means bye bye Pirate Bay, it's been nice knowing you.

Significant amendments to the Bill were proposed by Greens Senator Scott Ludlum.

Via smh.com.au

These amendments include:

– Amendment delaying Senate debate on the bill until the Government tables its response to Australian Law Reform Commission's 2013 report on copyright reform and the 2013 House of Reps IT price hike inquiry

– Clear up the definition of sites targeted by the bill so that it cannot include Virtual Private Networks which have legitimate purposes

– Remove the ability of the bill to target sites "facilitating" copyright infringement, as this could target legitimate sites

– Change the definition of sites targeted by the bill to specify that the sites must be "flagrantly" infringing copyright. This is referred to elsewhere in the bill but currently not required to be considered

– Allowing third parties (for example, consumer/public interest groups) to join the injunction applications as parties to help oppose websites being blocked

– Amend the Copyright Act to explicitly state that evading geo-blocking does not constitute copyright infringement – the bill is currently unclear

– Give any third-party the ability to seek a review of a website block

However, this would've delayed the Bill until the Government had responded to the ALRC abd IT pricing inquiry reports. Instead, Labor and the Coalition teamed up to vote down these amendments and the Bill was passed without a single successful amendment.

It looks like we'll have to get our Game Of Thrones the 'legit' (and overly-expensive) way soon.