Despite Lack Of Evidence It Will Help, Australia Still Planning To Bring In Data Retention, Still Not Clear If It Could Be Used Against Copyright Infringement

from the learning-the-hard-way dept

Thu, Feb 26th 2015 9:23am — Glyn Moody

Last year, we noted that one danger of bringing in data retention in Australia is that stored metadata might end up being used for all kinds of purposes that have nothing to do with fighting "terrorism," its principal justification. One particular concern is that it could be used to hunt for people downloading files illegally. Several months later, the signals are still very mixed. On the one hand, we have the following, as reported by the Guardian: Authorities are not interested in using the Abbott government's proposed data retention scheme to go after internet pirates and would be prevented from doing so by the commonwealth ombudsman, the assistant commissioner of the Australian federal police, Tim Morris, has said.
Morris also said any changes to the way metadata is collected and used would have to be approved by the ombudsman.

But that guarantee is less than watertight because of the following: The ombudsman, Colin Neave, has told Guardian Australia his office would not play a formal oversight role in the scheme and would give advice only at the attorney general’s discretion.
The Greens senator Scott Ludlam, noted that the ombudsman's oversight provided only "weak" protection against function creep, and that the public could not therefore depend on Morris’s assurances that the scope of the scheme would not expand in the future.

Whether or not stored metadata will be used against copyright infringement may be in doubt, but it seems that the Australian government's intention to bring in data retention is not, despite the fact that when asked on multiple occasions for evidence the move was justified, it has been unable to provide any. That's not really surprising given the Danish experience that keeping this kind of data didn't help, and may actually have hindered police investigations. Sadly, it looks like Australia is determined to discover this fact the hard and expensive way.

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Filed Under: australia, copyright, data retention, george brandis, piracy, surveillance

18 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 10:00am

Message recieved loud and clear

After snowden, nations had the chance to do the right thing by rights

Nations response's

"Fuck You"

Loud and clear.........hope you're prepared to suffer the consequences of public opinion
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 10:03am

Re:
is there such a thing as public racism?
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 10:05am

Re: Re:
As in, an imperialistic racism towards the serfs
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Kenneth Michaels, 26 Feb 2015 @ 10:25am

Lamar Smith introduced the same in the US
Remember, Lamar Smith (the same guy who introduced SOPA in the House) also introduced the same type of legislation in the US supposedly to fight child pornography. It was called the "Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_Children_from_Internet_Pornographers_Act_of_2011

Everyone thought at the time that it was really just creating data to go after pirates in the US. Didn't work in the US, but did in Australia.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 10:38am

"One particular concern is that it could be used to hunt for people downloading files illegally."

Yes, god forbid all you dbags that steal movies and music get busted.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 10:43am

Re:
God forbid you giving a shit about anything other then profit
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 10:44am

Re: Re: Re:
An imperialistic racism towards a free society
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Padpaw (profile), 26 Feb 2015 @ 11:08am

I am sure if they plan another "staged" terrorism attack with over 800 cops to "catch" them. The people of Australia will support anything without thinking much about it aside from what they are told to think.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 11:31am

Re: Re:
Profit? You steal my work. Fuck you.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 11:31am

'The ombudsman, Colin Neave, has told Guardian Australia his office would not play a formal oversight role in the scheme and would give advice only at the attorney general’s discretion.'

he's the asshole who has been trumpeting all over the place about how Aus badly needs this! if it weren't for him being yet another 'bought and paid for' official under the thumb of Hollywood and other members of the entertainment industries, none of this would be going on! what another waste of tax payers money doing something for an industry that wants everything it's own way as long as someone else pays for it!
all officials who have been keen to 'sign on' for these duties for the industries need to be in the position of able to be prosecuted, even after they have left office!
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That One Guy (profile), 26 Feb 2015 @ 11:40am

Re:
Tell you what, make the time fit the crime(if you claim a download is stealing the same as shoplifting, then make the penalty match. Does a $40 fine for an album download sound about right to you?), punish those that bend or break the law 'fighting piracy' with fervor equal to that you apply towards the pointless fight against piracy, and stop trying to screw everyone but pirates in your vain attempts to stomp out any potential competition or 'piracy', and then I might agree with you.
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Legendary Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 12:59pm

Dumb is Good
I looks like this will go through in Australia. The "Labor" "opposition" is as worthless as it's UK counterpart.

Australia has no Bill of Rights. We have seen some genuinely proto-facsist "national security" legislation under our current tea party government. The last couple of rounds saw ASIO granted broad immunity to prosecution, permission to hack anything anywhere, and the threat of 10 years jail to anyone (e.g. journalists, twitter users) who "share" classified material.

Maybe IngSoc will begin here.

The only hope is that the government gets ousted quickly. They are currently being investigated by federal police for trying to bribe the Human Rights Commissioner. Of course the government have massively expanded AFP funding and are giving them this bill, so a corrupt outcome is anticipated.
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Kronomex, 26 Feb 2015 @ 2:48pm

It has nothing at all to do with evil terrorists and protecting children it's all about protecting Rupert and forehead knuckling to their corporate masters.

Oh yes, with the new three strikes crap that's coming in soon business it seems is exempt from the new rules so I can imagine that ISP's will be swamped with hundreds if not thousands of new "businesses" signing up for the business packages. There will also be a surge (hopefully) in the use of VPN's.
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Kronomex, 26 Feb 2015 @ 2:56pm

Re: Dumb is Good
The Bill of Rights issue has been raised many times over the years here and both major parties can't jump into their bunkers fast enough and slam the blast doors shut and then put their fingers in their arses...sorry, ears...until it blows over and they can come out and strip ever more rights away.
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Kronomex, 26 Feb 2015 @ 10:21pm

Further to this nasty piece of legislation.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/401025,labor-backs-controversial-data-retention-bill.aspx? utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=editors_picks&google_editors_picks=true

Labor Party = gutless bastards! You can also bet (and no doubt win at very low odds) that they won't do anything address this when they get back in power. They'll make noises about it and then put it on the back burner.

My favourite part of the article: "The citizen metadata should only be accessed for criminal cases, the report is understood to recommend - but the Attorney-General of the day should also allow use of the metadata for civil proceedings at his discretion." means that George "Insert Corporate Brand Name Here" Brandis will jump to attention and then stick his head up his arse so he won't hear the people screaming when his corporate paymasters demand action.

This is what happens when a fanatical right wing, fascist, money grubbing and sycophantic corporate arse kissing party gets into power. The Labor Party is a piss weak excuse for an opposition.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2015 @ 11:26pm

Re: Re: Re:
What work have you made aside from "Cluck, cluck, cluck"? Hell, I've got a farm near my house that makes that "work" every day, for free! Why do I need to pay you for sounding like a rooster?

All the data retention you and the RIAA had for years and how many "pirates" did you nab? All of two dbags who got fucked over by having poor lawyers. Way to fucking go, champ!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2015 @ 1:05am

Re: Re: Re:
And you commit extortion (filesharing threats) and terrorism (Kim Dotcom) in return.

Fuck you back.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2015 @ 7:39am

It will be used for anything deemed "illegal".
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