Australia considers reform of its website blocking regime, including possibility to target search engines and new types of injunctions
As readers will know, over the past few years, Australia has considered or has introduced a number of changes to its copyright law. The latest news concerns online piracy and how to tackle copyright infringements occurred via the internet more effectively by means of enhanced website blocking orders. Katfriend Fiona Philiips ( Fiona Phillips Law ) explains the background to and content of a bill that was introduced a few days ago. Here’s what Fiona writes: Australia has traditionally experienced relatively high levels of copyright infringement. In 2015, the Australian Government introduced site blocking as a remedy into the Australian Copyright Act . The scheme enables rights holders to apply to the court to order service providers to block access to foreign websites which have the primary purpose of infringing (or facilitating infringement of) copyright. It is largely modeled on the successful site blocking regime in the UK. Since its introduction, the scheme has been used...