Telstra tells Big Content it won't become unpaid Copyright Cop

Australia's dominant telco and internet service provider Telstra has waded into the nation's copyright enforcement debate by rejecting Big Content's calls for it to assume liability for its users' copyright infringements.

Thodey's missive on the matter offers the usual “TV shows cost a lot to make and stealing them is wrong” introduction. He then offers the following thoughts on current proposals from Australia's government, and Big Content, about internet service providers' role in copyright enforcement:

“We do not support the proposal that the Copyright Act should be changed to extend liability for online infringement to internet service providers (ISPs) as well as schools, universities, libraries and anyone else who provides an internet service. This would require us all to police what our customers or patrons do online, contrary to well established legal principles and at significant cost and risk to people’s privacy.”

Thodey says Telstra is willing to wear “a multi-pronged approach which combines awareness raising about the importance of copyright, court ordered blocking of offending overseas websites, education notices to customers who are identified by rights holders as engaging in online infringement, a streamlined judicial process for the small number of alleged ‘repeat infringers’ and extension of the safe harbour scheme.”

Such an approach “places the onus on rights holders to identify who is infringing their copyright and to take action against ‘repeat infringers’, while ISPs must take practical steps to assist the rights holders and are able to recover the reasonable cost of doing so.”

Thodey also calls, as have many others, for “continued innovation and competition in the content delivery market in Australia” because “Evidence from other countries confirms that as more content is available via legitimate sources, the extent of copyright infringement falls significantly.”

None of which diverges too far from the position advanced by iiNet, meaning Australia's number one and number three ISPs are singing from the same hymn sheet. Perhaps importantly, Thodey's position also looks to be in accord with News Limited's desire for ISPs to "cooperate with copyright owners in deterring the unauthorised storage and transmission of copyrighted materials". Indeed, Thodey's piece appeared in Murdoch organ The Australian before the telco's own blog, hardly surprising given News and Telstra each own half shares in Australian pay-TV concern Foxtel.

Despite that cozy state of affairs, there's a way to run in this one, as submissions to Australia’s Copyright discussion paper closed only last Monday. It may be weeks before all submissions are revealed, months before a policy is delivered and seasons will likely come and go before a bill reaches the Parliament. ®