CONTENT rights holders are beginning to win the battle against piracy in Australia as new research reveals a significant decline in illegal downloading among Aussie internet users.

Illegal piracy and streaming is down about 25 per cent in the last year and a further 53 per cent among sites specifically blocked by Australian internet service providers.

But rights holders are continuing their fight against the pirates and have even taken a swipe at Google for “facilitating” the practice.

In 2015 the federal government passed legislation paving the way for court-ordered blocking of websites hosting material in breach of copyright.

However blocking piracy websites can be an endless game of cat and mouse as websites can reappear elsewhere under a slightly different domain, leading some to claim the site-blocking legislation would ultimately prove to be a futile exercise. Wannabe pirates can also use VPNs (virtual private networks) to mask their location and get around the site blocks.

But the latest figures show overall piracy has reduced by 25 per cent year-on-year, according to the Australian Site-Blocking Efficacy Report produced by online analysis company INCOPRO.

The report — which was produced for the Australian Screen Association to assess the efficacy of site blocking — also showed a more significant 53 per cent reduction in the use of pirate sites which were targeted by a blocking order.

The analysis was compiled after the Australian Federal Court ordered the blocking of 59 pirate sites in August 2017 at the behest of rights holders Village Roadshow and Foxtel*, and followed a similar order in December 2016 which blocked 59 domains relating to five popular sites — PirateBay, isohunt, SolarMovie, TorrentHound and Torrentz.

Since the first site-blocking orders were made in Australia in December 2016, the Federal Court has ordered 65 piracy sites to be blocked, and over 378 related domains. Since that time, the usage of the top 50 piracy sites in Australia has decreased by 35 per cent, the report claims.

GOOGLE IS ‘SHAMELESSLY FACILITATING CRIME’

The purported reduction is good news for rights holders but they insist they’re not resting on their laurels.

Graham Burke is the chairman of Creative Content Australia (CCA) and the co-chief executive at Australian film distribution company Village Roadshow. He’s been leading the charge on the piracy crackdown and has taken a huge swipe at Google for what he sees as facilitating the illegal practice.

Speaking to news.com.au he said the Silicon Valley tech giant was “complicit” in piracy and was “shamelessly facilitating crime by leading people to pirate sites”.

“The reduction in piracy is exciting news but that 53 per cent could be 90 per cent. The government has shut the front door, but Google is leading people to the back door, showing no respect for Australian law or courts let alone any regard for the Australian economy and cultural way of life,” he said in a statement this morning.

“Meanwhile the criminals running pirate sites are earning giant commissions scamming Australian citizens.”

He blames the search engine giant for being partly responsible for the Australian film Lion, among others, being illegally downloaded and streamed more than a million times.

“That’s coming straight out of the bloodstream of a Sydney-based production company,” he told news.com.au.

“Google doesn’t care about Australia or Australian jobs. If they wanted to, they could clean it up in a week.”

Mr Burke points to South Korea as an example of what is possible for rights holders. The Korean-owned search engine company, Naver, handles about 75 per cent of all web searches in the country and takes a hard line on links related to pirated or copyright-infringing content.

“They of their on volition demote piracy links to page four, which is effectively Siberia,” Mr Burke said. “That’s game over.”

Despite such proactive measures by the internet search company, as well as a government-led crackdown since 2009, the Asian country is also having its struggles with online piracy.

While Mr Burke would like to see Google adopt a similar approach, he says the company only cares about profit, regardless of whether it leads users towards scams or harmful content.

A Google spokesperson said: “Google takes the fight against online piracy very seriously. We have invested tens of millions of dollars in tools and systems that help fight online piracy, including on search.

“We downrank sites in search that have a large number of valid DMCA notices and ban pirate sites from our ad network.”

RENEWED PUSH FOR PIRACY CRACKDOWN

Prior to Australia, the UK enacted its own site-blocking plan to crack down on piracy and the results shown in the Australian study carried out by INCOPRO mirror the experience in Britain.

Findings of a UK study by Carnegie-Mellon University showed that overall piracy was only significantly reduced when a substantial number of sites were blocked simultaneously.

The Australian results have echoed that and proved promising for rights holders but Creative Content Australia is looking to further its message as it rolls out its new consumer campaign, Say No To Piracy.

The campaign launches in cinemas and on subscription and free-to-air television across Australia tomorrow and is designed to showcase the innovation and creativity of Australia’s film industry as well as highlight the vast array of behind-the-scenes professionals required to make screen content. It comes as the government begins a review of the site-blocking laws.

The organisation’s executive director, Lori Flekser, said the new campaign has a different message to CCA’s 2017 Price Of Piracy, featuring Australian actor Bryan Brown.

“Price Of Piracy was a great success in alerting consumers that pirate sites are criminal neighbourhoods posing real risks. Our new campaign, Say No To Piracy, celebrates Australian film and television, and is a powerful reminder that we have some of the best screen professionals in the world,” she said.

“Online piracy jeopardises not only local jobs and livelihoods, but also the future of great Australian stories that promote our culture and way of life.”

While the campaign is targeting the hearts and mind of potential pirates, Mr Burke said rights holders will continue to go to the court system to have sites blocked when necessary.

“We will continue to use the site blocking in powerful ways,” he told news.com.au.

* News Corp Australia, the publisher of news.com.au, is part owner of Foxtel.