Australia: Tough New Anti-Piracy Measures

[Aractus]

Public comments can be posted HERE: . As I mentioned I strongly encourage writing to your MP and Senators as well, in particular to Hon. Malcolm Turnbull and to Hon. Jason Clare, AS WELL as whoever your local MP and Senator are.

The first things I will say is this, the code requires that ISPs assume that notices that they receive from rights holders are true - in essence it creates an environment where the accused consumers are assumed guilty until proven innocent, but with no opportunity for the proof of innocence before notices are sent. Notice that the proposed code states that ISPs MUST send these notices without any court order or any proof whatsoever! Secondly, and even more concerning, it would allows the transmission of personal information from ISP to "rights holders", a clear violation of privacy and vendor-client confidentiality, without any proof other than the say-so of the "rights holder".

And if that doesn't concern you then nothing in this world will. I will prove the above statement by quoting direct from the document:

• (d) if:
  (i) the IP address can be matched to an Account Holder,
  and
  (ii) the Infringement Report relates to matters which occurred after the end of any relevant Quarantine Period in relation to that Account Holder;
  
  (e) then the ISP must send, in the first instance, an Education Notice, then a Warning Notice and then a Final Notice in each case in accordance with the relevant Code requirements:
  (i) by email to the contact email address of the Account Holder, as held by the ISP; and
  (ii) that includes the information required under either clause 3.7, 3.8 or 3.9 as appropriate; and
  (iii) in the case of a Final Notice (only), also in accordance with section 3.9.2.
  
  (f) If, 12 months after sending an Education Notice to an individual Account Holder, the ISP has not received a total of at least three Infringement Reports in respect of that Account Holder, the tally of infringement allegations received for the Account Holder will revert to zero.
  
  (pp. 12-13)

And that's just the first part.

• Education Notice
  3.7.1 An Education Notice pursuant to this Code must include the following information:
  ...
  (c ) that no personal information of the Account Holder has been passed by the ISP to any third party, including the Rights Holder;
  ...
  
  Warning Notice
  3.8.1 A Warning Notice pursuant to this Code must include the following information:
  ...
  (d ) that no personal information of the Account Holder has been passed to any third party;
  ...
  
  Final Notice
  3.9.1 A Final Notice pursuant to this Code must include the following information:
  ...
  ...

If this fucking code passes I'm changing to a business internet plan.