Piracy !

When some people think of piracy it brings memories of a Johnny Depp movie, but bandits in boats boarding ships on the high seas is still a maritime hazard in many parts of the world.  It is rife in the waters of the horn of Africa and in one of the most congested shipping highways to our north, the Malacca Strait.

That word - " Pirate "- also technically apples to thousands of Australian citizens who choose to watch Hollywood films and Australian film content without bothering to pay any sort of entrance fee or commission to the owners of the copyright.   They are aided and abetted by forty-two piracy sites which show this material on the Internet and allow viewers to download it onto their computers or television screens.

Many who watch movies on this Pirate network see it as a victimless crime, but the film  studios who make these movies spend multi-million dollars on their production and expect to realise a profit from the money people pay to buy a seat in a movie theatre to watch the shows.  It is becoming harder to attract the finance for new films while the profits are being constantly eroded by this pirate industry.

Watching top quality films for free seems a strange stroke of luck for most viewers.  They wonder how the pirate industry makes its money - and the answer to that conundrum is - advertising.  In exchange for that free movie the viewers are exposed to advertisements, and in this age of constant data it is possible to predetermine a lot about the type of people who watch pirated movies.  The advertisements often have a product with attraction to that type of audience.

At long last the laws is starting to catch up and those days of free movies are coming to an end.   The Federal Court has ordered a raft of pirate web sites to be blocked in Australia.  An action by Village Roadshow backed by Hollywood studios Warner Bros,  Paramount,  Universal, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox - and Foxtel has secured a major ruling to stop flagrant copyright infringement of the rights of copyright owners.

This ruling serves notice on Australian internet service providers - and that includes Telstra and TPG - that they are liable under the law unless they block this pirate material.  Foxtel will get relief because the order will block at least 150 domain names showing pirated content and probably many more because many operate under a variety of aliases.

This is an interesting tactical change.  Previously, the copyright owners were threatening to sue individual viewers of pirated material and using a few selected victims to serve as a court example.  An unsuspecting family might find themselves facing a fine which would bankrupt them and it was hoped that the publicity would make others wary of using pirate sites.  There was also the risk of a public relations backlash and the studios were reluctant to take that action.

The Federal Court has placed the blame precisely where it will have precise and immediate effect.  The Internet providers are knowingly and willingly allowing copyright infringement when they allow pirated content to be shown by providers who pay a fee for that privilege.  The onus is now back on these service providers to ensure that what they follow complies with the law.

Now the copyright people will turn their attention to the many forms of pirated material for sale in flea markets and which allow the buyer to download the contents onto their television screen.  Plugging that gap will not be so easy !