ISPs propose new anti-piracy warning scheme

A coalition of most of the nation’s major ISPs has proposed a scheme for handling Internet piracy which would see Australians issued with warning and educational notices after content holders provided evidence that they had breached their copyright online — and the door opened for ISPs to hand over user details to the content industry if they keep on pirating content online.
The coalition includes Telstra, Optus, iiNet, Internode and Primus, but not TPG, Dodo or Exetel. It is working on collaboration with network equipment manufacturer Ericsson and industry groups the Communications Alliance and the Internet Industry Association.
In a statement released this afternoon by the Communications Alliance, the group noted that the scheme would require ISPs to forward “education and warning notices” to customers whose broadband connections have been detected undertaking activity which “might” infringe copyright laws. Once a customer had been forwarded three warnings and one education notice, ISPs would send what is terms a “discovery notice” to the account holder, warning them that they have apparently failed to address issues set out in the previous notices and their details may be subpoenaed by the copyright holder which had filed the complaint.
The ISP will, at that time, also notify the copyright holder that the Internet user concerned had failed to address the issues of online copyright infringement. The copyright holder may then seek to apply for access to the Internet user’s details and identity through a subpoena or ‘discovery’ application directly with the ISP.
“Should the ISP be served with a valid preliminary discovery order (or subpoena), the ISP will be required to comply with the order, which may require the ISP to disclose the account holder’s details to the rights holder,” the ISPs noted in a discussion paper proposing the scheme. The paper is available in full online (PDF). After they had obtained Internet users’ details, copyright holders would then be able to take legal action directly against the users.
The scheme does not provide for the termination of Internet user’s broadband access, not for any action to be imposed on customers directly by ISPs; in addition, the ISPs notes that it gives consumers the right to appeal warning notices...

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Renai LeMay @'Delimiter'

NewtonMark Mark Newton 

Today's announcement by ISPs is basically, "Okay, we've already bent over. Now how wide would you like us to stretch?"