Ludlam demolishes data retention bill
At the end of January, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) held two days of hearings into the government’s data retention legislation (transcripts here and here). These hearings were at times a testy affair, with a number of Coalition members particularly being openly antagonistic to privacy advocates, including EFA’s Jon Lawrence (see […]
George Brandis still struggling with metadata
While it is perhaps unsurprising, the Attorney-General’s latest attempt to use the Sydney siege and recent events in France as justifications for the government’s mandatory data retention laws is as distasteful as it is misleading. It’s difficult to know whether he is being deliberately disingenuous or whether his understanding of the detail of what he […]
EFA joins call for transparency in Trans-Pacific Partnership talks
EFA joins the Australian Digital Alliance, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET), Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC), the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) and 42 other civil society groups and experts from around the world to call on trade ministers of countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) […]
Forced negotiations and industry codes won’t stop illegal downloads
This article, by Nicolas Suzor and Eleanor Angel from Queensland University of Technology was originally published on The Conversation on 11th December 2014. Attorney-General George Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced yesterday that they expect internet service providers (ISPs) to work with copyright owners to help police infringement. ISPs will have to agree to a […]
Blocking piracy websites is bad for Australia’s digital future
This article, by Dan Hunter, from Swinburne University of Technology, was originally published at The Conversation. See the original article Rumours are flying that the government will introduce legislation before Christmas aimed at blocking certain websites, such as The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents, as part of a range of efforts to reduce copyright infringement […]