Australia considers a “graduated response” system to help curb online piracy

Australia is edging toward a “graduated response” system after the attorney-general declared his country’s government would consider such measures to help curb online piracy. George Brandis, who serves in the dual role of attorney-general and minister for the arts, told a gathering last Friday he was committed to a major overhaul of the country’s Copyright Act, to bring the laws up-to-speed with new technologies. 

We’ve repeatedly pointed out how graduated response anti-piracy programs don’t slow piracy. France’s Hadopi program is obviously example A, though here in the United States our own graduated response program, where users are either throttled or bombarded with one-sided “educational” materials, has proven equally ineffective at impacting piracy rates. This shouldn’t have really been much of a surprise, considering that numerous studies have shown that such programs really don’t work and can in some cases have significant negative implications; studies that the entertainment industry and governments promptly ignore.