From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime

Australia's website-blocking regime, introduced in 2015 and expanded in 2018, permits injunctions requiring internet service and search engine providers to block access to overseas websites that have the "primary effect" or "primary purpose" of facilitating copyright infring...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Foong, Cheryl, Gray, Joanne
Format: Journal Article
Published: Thomson Reuters 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/87248
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author Foong, Cheryl
Gray, Joanne
author_facet Foong, Cheryl
Gray, Joanne
author_sort Foong, Cheryl
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Australia's website-blocking regime, introduced in 2015 and expanded in 2018, permits injunctions requiring internet service and search engine providers to block access to overseas websites that have the "primary effect" or "primary purpose" of facilitating copyright infringement. Furthermore, the injunction may be "adaptive" in nature – rightsholders may by agreement with internet service or search engine providers extend the injunction to apply to mirror locations online, without returning to court. In this article, we critically analyse the trajectory of this so-called "no fault" enforcement regime, and highlight the lack of transparency fostered by the regime. We challenge the conception of the regime as a form of proprietary protection and the resulting uncritical reliance by lawmakers on private ordering as a keystone of online copyright enforcement. Finally, we provide recommendations for addressing the flaws in the current design of Australia's copyright site-blocking regime.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-872482022-01-27T03:20:53Z From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime Foong, Cheryl Gray, Joanne 4806 - Private law and civil obligations 1801 - Law Australia's website-blocking regime, introduced in 2015 and expanded in 2018, permits injunctions requiring internet service and search engine providers to block access to overseas websites that have the "primary effect" or "primary purpose" of facilitating copyright infringement. Furthermore, the injunction may be "adaptive" in nature – rightsholders may by agreement with internet service or search engine providers extend the injunction to apply to mirror locations online, without returning to court. In this article, we critically analyse the trajectory of this so-called "no fault" enforcement regime, and highlight the lack of transparency fostered by the regime. We challenge the conception of the regime as a form of proprietary protection and the resulting uncritical reliance by lawmakers on private ordering as a keystone of online copyright enforcement. Finally, we provide recommendations for addressing the flaws in the current design of Australia's copyright site-blocking regime. 2020 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/87248 Thomson Reuters fulltext
spellingShingle 4806 - Private law and civil obligations
1801 - Law
Foong, Cheryl
Gray, Joanne
From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime
title From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime
title_full From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime
title_fullStr From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime
title_full_unstemmed From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime
title_short From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime
title_sort from little things big things grow: australia’s evolving site blocking regime
topic 4806 - Private law and civil obligations
1801 - Law
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/87248