Movies to match US launch dates

Jump on for this teaser trailer 'Final Ride' released for the seventh and final season of Sons of Anarchy.

THE government has revealed new details about its plans to crack down on internet piracy - but there is significant doubt about whether they will be effective.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull hosted the Online Copyright Infringement Forum in Sydney, bringing together representatives from telecommunications, the TV, movie and music industries, and consumer advocates.

But there was little agreement among the panel members on what practical steps should be taken to reduce online piracy.

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Illegal file sharing or torrenting through peer-to-peer websites such The Pirate Bay, which allows consumers to watch their favourite TV and movies for free, was at the centre of much of the discussion.

Torrenting has dropped from 31 per cent to 5.69 per cent in the US over the past six years, which was attributed largely to the popularity of streaming service Netflix.

Meanwhile, torrenting in Asia (including Australia) still sits at 26 per cent.

Australia is one of the world's worst offenders when it comes to online piracy, with 11.6 per cent of the illegal downloads of season four of Game of Thrones happening in Australia.

Game of Thrones is popular for downloaders Source: Supplied

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

Customers complain that the core reason Australians are heavy illegal downloaders is that content is too expensive and not easy enough to access.

The Lego Movie, which was produced in Sydney, underperformed at the Australian box office because of these access issues, Village Roadshow boss Graham Burke said.

Run for your lives! Pirates! Oh, it's The LEGO Movie Source: Supplied

The movie was released in the US in February, but held until the school holidays in Australia and released in April. This led to it being heavily pirated, something the company has clearly learnt from.

"(From now on) our policy is movies will be released day and date with the US. Movies will come out at the same time," Mr Burke said.

Foxtel responded to affordability complaints last week by significantly dropping its prices, its basic package slashed from $49 a month to $25.

"The content owners and people like us have a role to play in making content affordable and available," Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein told the forum.

But Brett Cottle from music copyright organisation APRA indicated that fixing price and availability wasn't a silver bullet because music was still widely pirated in Australia despite it being cheap and easy to access in a variety of ways.

Shows like Netflix's "House of Cards" has helped see torrenting drop in popularity. Source: Supplied

THE BIG STICK

The government is considering international examples of ways to punish those who illegally download TV, movies and music.

Graduated response schemes, or notice schemes, see customers sent escalating letters if they continue to breach the rules.

The US model includes the ability for internet service providers (ISPs) to slow down customers' internet connections, while the New Zealand model allows for offending customers to be sued.

Mr Burke said South Korea "led the way" in beating online piracy, with its policy of educating the public and the tough penalty of cutting off the internet connections of repeat offenders.

Telstra representative Jane Van Beelen said the company was willing to help on the issue.

"I know that people get frustrated with availability issues, but that is no excuse," she said.

She said Telstra was not willing to compromise its customers' privacy, and called for a third party to be set up to monitor piracy.

"Our customers wouldn't want us to look at what they are doing online," she said.

Telstra supports a notice scheme, but rival telco iiNet is against the idea.

"We want to see the problem resolved, but all the research points to notice schemes not working," iiNet boss David Buckingham said.

Another crowd favourite: Netflix show Orange Is The New Black. Source: AP

THE PIRATE COMMUNITY

There was also disagreement about the effectiveness of compelling ISPs to block offending torrenting websites, such as the popular Pirate Bay.

Foxtel believes you could shut them down, but iiNet argued that for each site you take down another pops up in its place.

"We could end up playing whack-a-mole," Mr Buckingham said.

"Be aware that technology finds a way around those things and makes it very difficult to pin someone down."

Alan Kirkland from consumer group Choice agreed that regulators would struggle to keep up with the tech savvy.

"If we are going to do something, it should be something we are confident will work, but there is a limited evidence base that it will work," he said.

"Web developers move much faster than courts."

In general, Mr Kirkland expressed scepticism that any of the options the government was pursuing would work to stop piracy.

He said film and TV industries had moved a long way towards making content more affordable and available but there was still a way to go.

"There's sill and enormous price gap, particularly for most popular TV shows, than in the US or UK," Mr Kirkland said.

"There are very few people who say there should be a right to piracy (but) we need to address these root causes of price and availability if we want to give our creative industries a bright future."

Netflix is unlimited stories and uninterrupted moments, anywhere you are. Courtesy: YouTube/Netflix

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