Carrier club's copyright code off to ACMA

A day after Dallas Buyers Club won the right to get names and addresses of putative pirates in Australia, the Communications Alliance has sent its proposed piracy code off to for regulatory approval.

The code – full name the Copyright Notice Scheme Code 2015 – has been submitted to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for registration, which would be the final step towards bringing it into force.

The Communications Alliance notes that the code has had two important amendments between the time it was first published and now: consumers will be able to challenge infringement notices without having to stump up $25 to do so; and there's “stronger consumer representation” on the overseeing body, the Copyright Information Panel.

The alliance's media statement (here, with bonus strange URL that will probably be changed) notes that funding arrangements are still to be finalised, and the ACMA has to decide that the document is fit for registration.

The code follows the familiar three-strikes (within 12 months) process under which a presumed persistent pirate will get escalating warnings.

Copyright owners will notify ISPs of allegedly infringing IP addresses, and those addresses will get a series of escalating notices from the ISP.

Only those who ignore the notices will be at risk of having their details handed to the copyright owners, under the “facilitated discovery process” that is the final step of the code's process.

From there on, the ISP will be out of the loop: deciding whether or not to launch legal action will be down to the copyright owner.

The code, in the form submitted to the ACMA, is here. ®