The federal Labor party is expected to back a bill before parliament that would result in the blocking of websites facilitating piracy, Fairfax Media understands, but only if certain safeguards are agreed to by the Abbott government.
The Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015, currently being scrutinised by a parliamentary committee, would require ISPs — such as Telstra, Optus and iiNet — to block access to websites a judge deems to have the primary purpose of infringing copyright.
The websites identified to be blocked would be brought to a judge by a rights holder concerned its copyright has been infringed. Sites likely to be blocked include The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, which allow people to download and share movies and TV shows illicitly.
The parliamentary committee examining the bill was due to report back any recommendations it had on May 12, but the handing down of its report was delayed until May 29.
While Opposition Leader Bill Shorten would not confirm on Thursday that Labor would be supporting the legislation, senior Labor party sources have told Fairfax the party would be, as long as certain safeguards, expected to be recommended by the parliamentary committee, were agreed to by the Abbott government. The committee is made up of members from Labor, the Coalition and the Greens.
It's understood the Labor party discussed the bill at a recent caucus meeting, where it was argued by senior members that not supporting the bill would be tantamount to supporting piracy.
The safeguards are expected to clarify what exactly "primary purpose" infringement is, as well as address the issue of unintended consequences that may arise from blocking websites.
It's also understood that the committee is considering whether to recommend a consumer advocate be involved in any court proceedings to block a website to ensure legitimate websites aren't blocked.
Asked directly whether Labor would support the legislation, Mr Shorten said: "Labor will get the balance right because we're in touch with what people actually want and we also respect the arguments against piracy and we are determined to avoid piracy as well."
Mr Shorten added that large production houses overseas needed to make sure that Australians "see product in a timely fashion and at a reasonable cost".
"... We want artists and actors to gain some benefit from their work and ... piracy takes that away from the people who work in this industry — the actors and the artists and the producers and the technical people who produce our films," Mr Shorten said
The Opposition Leader made the comments on Thursday after visiting the Sydney headquarters of Google. The tech giant has been vocally opposed to the site-blocking regime, saying it was "not the most effective means of stopping piracy".
Google, like some others, argued in a submission to the parliamentary committee that site blocking had the potential to be used in ways that were unintended, including by blocking legitimate content.
One of the unintended consequences could be the blocking of Virtual Private Networks that may, in addition to providing legitimate services, also unintentionally facilitate piracy.
"VPNs also have many other legitimate purposes, including privacy and security," Google said.
Labor's communications spokesman Jason Clare, who was also with Shorten on the tour of Google, said Labor was waiting for the committee to finalise its recommendations before announcing Labor's position.
"I expect [the committee is] going to identify a number of problems in that legislation that are going to need to be considered and addresses. So we'll wait until we get that final report before we announce a final position," Mr Clare said.
Labor frontbencher Ed Husic, who was also with Clare and Shorten, said that while the site-blocking legislation was being debated rights holders should "make the very public declaration" that there would be fairer film and TV prices for Australians.
Content also needed to be "made more accessible", he said.
"I've been on the record for a while saying rights holders have lived under an old model where they've been able to splice up the world into regional fiefdoms and price and access accordingly," Mr Husic said.
"They've rightly focused on piracy but they also need to spend as much energy on developing a better way for Australians to get product at better prices," he said.
