When we sip our morning coffee or snack on a piece of chocolate, we hardly think about how these products came to us. The answer is: they were transported by sea. In fact, pretty much all the goods we…
There have been four very interesting pieces of news over the past few weeks that, although apparently unconnected, are anything but. First, Apple’s third fiscal quarter sales were released earlier this…
Economic development along the coast would mean hijacked ships have nowhere to hide.
EPA
Imagine you are a Somali pirate captain. You have hijacked a cargo ship after four weeks out at sea, 800 nautical miles from home. It will take maybe three, perhaps six, possibly 18 months to extract a…
Coldplay are in the middle of a spat between the biggest names in digital music.
EPA/Marcelo Sayao
Coldplay has barred music streaming service Spotify from adding their latest album Ghost Stories to its database, sparking a debate about the sustainability of the streaming model. Coldplay signed an exclusivity…
The cinema industry needs to be more open to changing its distribution model.
palomaleca
In the last fortnight, senior executives from cinema operators in Australia, including Village Roadshow and Palace Cinemas, have come out defending their decision to raise movie ticket prices. But do their…
Anti-piracy laws are thin on the ground in Australia at the moment, but do we really need more?
Scurzuzu/Flickr
Copyright has been firmly back on the agenda in recent months. We’ve seen the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) release its report on copyright which recommended that Australia adopt a “fair use…
Hell and high water: a German anti-piracy ship returns from an African tour.
Ingo Wagner/EPA
The Crimea crisis has focused our attention on the vexed question of Europe’s energy supplies. To a great extent Europe depends on Russia for its oil and gas, which gives Vladimir Putin disproportionate…
Avast there: a US Navy search and seizure team chasing suspected Somali pirates.
US Navy
Maritime security is fundamental to economic development all over the world, from local to regional up to international levels. The sea-based trading system, developed mostly by states with maritime borders…
Fair use helps distinguish “piracy” from what ordinary consumers and creators do all the time.
funkandjazz
Everyone knows there’s a problem with copyright. Artists get paid very little for their work, and legitimate consumers aren’t getting a very fair deal either. Unfortunately, nobody agrees about how we…
Music sales have been falling for some time, but this should not attributed to piracy alone.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP Image
Fact: worldwide sales of recorded music have declined significantly over the last decade. Fact: there has also been an increase in the use of P2P file-sharing technologies over the last decade. While there…
Illegal downloading has become a free-for-all.
Josh Russell
Data released by Ofcom yesterday show that internet users who illegally download films, music or games actually spend more money on legal downloads than those who always play by the rules. Online piracy…
Defeating piracy is harder than law enforcement agencies would like to think.
spieri_sf
According to a new Ipsos report, piracy in Norway has declined markedly over the past few years. In 2008 they estimated there were 1.2 billion illegal downloads of songs, but by 2012 this had dropped to…
If they go after your computers, it could get worse than that.
Alexandrre Claude
The theft of intellectual property (IP) online is a serious matter. A 2011 report by the UK Cabinet Office estimates the value of lost IP to the UK economy at about £21 billion. Until recently the debate…
Silver bullets are elusive when it comes to curbing illegal downloads.
aquella manera
We know online piracy exists; we know governments want to stop it – but what are the options? Richard Freudenstein, CEO of Australia’s largest pay-TV provider Foxtel, has joined the chorus of entertainment…
Concerns about the NBN destroying Australian music are just scaremongering.
AAP/Joel Carrett
The NBN could have disastrous results for the local [music] industry. At least, that was the view of peak recording industry body the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and local…
Australia’s High Court has found in favour of Internet service provider iiNet in a high profile piracy case that is being closely watched around the world.
AAP
In what is being billed as iiNet versus Hollywood, the Australian internet service provider has come out an apparent winner after the High Court dismissed a copyright infringement case brought by industry…
News Corporation is facing claims a subsidiary engaged in piracy against pay TV rivals in a bid to destabilise them.
AAP
The Australian Financial Review has published allegations that a “secret unit” within Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation undertook a program of piracy against pay television operators in a bid to damage…
The creative sector may need a little help protecting itself online.
unsure shot
Creators of online content should feel free to share material online without fear of non-attribution or piracy, or having their copyright or trademarks misused. Plainly, the current system of enforcement…
The “scorched-earth” tactics espoused by SOPA are raising serious concerns.
Abode of Chaos
A pair of bills currently making their way through US legislature has set off alarm bells among internet technologists and users worldwide. The aim of PROTECT-IP, in the Senate, and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy…
Is tighter online regulation a cause for despair or jubilation?
kelvin255
Battle lines have been drawn in the US between proponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), currently being debated, and those who oppose any regulation of the internet. On one side are organisations…