One of the great controversies that is currently a hot button issue here in Australia is copyright and more importantly the issue of piracy and why we here in Australia love to pirate content at an alarming rate? One of the explanations that has been constantly floated and in my eyes is completely right is the lack of availability of fairly priced content within Australia. As Aussies we do not like being ripped off and not being able to partake in a fair deal. The other issue is that the availability of content is constantly blocked or delayed by up to 8 months compared to when it was made available in the UK or USA and in this modern day there is no reason for there to be such a large delay. Yes some shows are ‘fast tracked’ however it is still not a brilliant system and it has many flaws which result in viewers and consumers becoming frustrated and resorting to a place where content is readily available which just so happens to be torrenting.
So what needs to happen in order for this piracy problem within Australia. Well firstly the legislation that is being proposed by Attorney General Brandis needs to be revoked as it is only reducing the freedoms of Australians. In order to reduce the piracy issue there content problem has to be addressed through allowing services such as netflix into Australia thus increasing competition and increasing the availability of content.
The issue of piracy and the availability of content is a very contentious issue and it is only through the government consulting with industry and civilians in order to gather a picture of what Australia needs to curb this copyright infringing behaviour.
Andrew Pratt
Andrew Pratt Online Ministries 