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Online piracy in Australia slashed by 25 per cent after rogue sites targeted

‘Say No to Piracy.’

The court-ordered blocking of 59 illegal sites has significantly reduced the level of online film and TV piracy in Australia, according to a new study.

Traffic to blocked sites has been reduced by 53 per cent while the overall level of piracy has fallen by 25 per cent year-on-year.

Creative Content Australia (CCA) chairman Graham Burke welcomes the findings but he urged Google and other search engines to join the fight by taking down infringing sites.

“The reduction in piracy is exciting news but that 53 per cent could be 90 per cent,” Burke said. “The government has shut the front door but Google is leading people to the back door, showing no respect for Australian law or courts, let alone any regard for the Australian economy and cultural way of life.”

“Meanwhile the criminals running pirate sites are earning giant commissions scamming Australian citizens.”

CCA released Incopro’s Australian Site-Blocking Efficacy Report today, tying in with the launch on Thursday of its latest consumer campaign ‘Say No to Piracy,’ which celebrates creativity and innovation in the screen industries as well as underlining the vast array of behind-the-scenes professionals involved in making content.

The 30-second spots, which include clips from Lion, Top of the Lake, Hacksaw Ridge, Red Dog and Paper Planes, will screen in cinemas, on Foxtel and the free-to-air broadcasters and online.

They were written and created by Goodoil Films’ Curtis Hill, who graduated from the VCA in 2013. “Film school opened my eyes to how many skilled people it takes to make screen content,” he tells IF.

“I want to direct features and TV but piracy is reducing the amount of projects being made. It’s tough for young filmmakers to get their first break and for established filmmakers to get their projects made.”

Hill, 25, spent two months working on the scripts for the spots and in pre-production, filmed them in one day and then spent two or three weeks on post production.

He has directed several short films, TVCs and music videos. For the past two years he has been developing two features: an adventure with intercutting stories about two boys who go looking for gold and what happens to them as adults; and a buddy road movie.

The campaign builds on CCA research that showed 74 per cent of Australians believe piracy is stealing or theft.

The Incopro report showed site-blocking resulted in a 53.4 per cent reduction in visits to the blocked sites last November, compared with before the regime began in December 2016. Moreover, usage of the top 250 unauthorised sites in Australia decreased by 25.4 per cent in that period.

CCA executive director Lori Flekser said the research clearly shows the assertions made by vocal opponents of site-blocking – who claimed it was ineffectual – were unfounded and wrong.

“The reduction in piracy that this research confirms offers proof to all the naysayers who decried site-blocking that not only is it working well, but it hasn’t broken the internet,” she said.

See the research here.

Timelapse – Say No to Piracy from Creative Content Australia on Vimeo.

  1. QUELLE SURPRISE! According to the actual report “piracy” is down 71.7% on the sites “affected by the blocking order”. This is a nonsense statement. Of course the blocked sites have been affected. That’s the point surely! The report also states “The usage of the top 50 sites in Australia has decreased by 7.7% since October 2016”. A less than 10 percent outcome is hardly something to crow about. Especially when you take into account the fact that piracy was already declining due to the ‘Netflix effect’ – according to a government survey unlawful downloading fell following the arrival of video-on-demand services. The best solution to piracy has been pointed out by Mr Turnbull (quote from a ZDNet story) … “Rights holders’ most powerful tool to combat online copyright infringement is making content accessible, timely, and affordable to consumers”.

  2. What a load of crap…!!!
    The reason Australians pirate is that the TV stations don’t allow us to watch what we want to watch when we want it. Lets start on show on prime time, then move it to a Sunday, then move it to 11pm at night on a Monday or just drop it completely after half a season….
    Or if they are feeling nice they fast track something from the US or UK…still 2 weeks or more behind everyone else… do they ship it on a slow boat…or what…..have they not heard of the INTERNET.!!!! you can transfer stuff from one place to another in high quality in less that an hour.

    “The government has shut the front door but Google is leading people to the back door, showing no respect for Australian law or courts, let alone any regard for the Australian economy and cultural way of life.”… The Australian cultural way of life was up until Netflix and the like ruled by what and when TV stations wanted us to watch….

  3. Getty Pictures is scouring the web for Creative Commons photos donated to the public, slapping their own copyright on them, and suing anyone who won’t pay their fees. This sort of thing is just silly misunderstandings I’m sure, and so I support this Say No to Piracy campaign because our corporate overlords are genuinely nice people. Even Disney and that mouse.

  4. “I want to direct features and TV but piracy is reducing the amount of projects being made. It’s tough for young filmmakers to get their first break and for established filmmakers to get their projects made.”

    Too many films are released each year, says British Film Institute

    According to Box Office Mojo…

    2013 — 689

    2014 — 706

    2015 — 705

    2016 — 729

    above excludes Bollywood films add another 1200 pa

    1. If you are a would-be Australian film maker you are misguided if you think this anti-piracy campaign has anything to do with you. It’s really about protecting the foreign content rights holders who’ve used geoblocking for decades to artificially inflate the prices we pay for their content.

  5. Seems did not meet film standards, in 2014 BFI stated to many films being released since that time film releases per annum have increased approximately 13 films per week are currently released (excluding Bollywood films). So the person claiming in the editorial that films are not being made due to piracy, may need to check the figures or come up with a project that doesn’t pirate, plagiarize, copy or mimic a previously copyrighted film, almost impossible…. but it is still piracy. So maybe if film producers were to come up with original content, then they could complain about piracy, how many times can you make romeo and juliet (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl) or Jumanji surely copying for profit is piracy ?

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