New research reveals Australians are bypassing site blocks and exposing themselves to cybercrime

Creative Content Australia (CCA), the anti-piracy advocacy group representing the screen industry, has called on the Government to strengthen site blocking laws as new findings reveal Australians are bypassing site blocks and increasingly becoming victims of cybercrime.

Cybersafety remains a major issue for Australians who pirate. The annual piracy survey from Creative Content Australia revealed year-on-year increases in the number of pirates who report being hacked, becoming a victim of fraud, or having a virus or ransomware installed on their device. In total, 72% of adults and 82% of teens who are lapsed or active pirates have experienced one of the above.

Graham Burke AO, Chair of Creative Content Australia, said: “Australians must remember, pirate operators are not altruistic and a ‘free’ TV or movie is not free at all. It’s simply a lure for criminal enterprises to make money via illegal scams, such as identity theft and ransomware, that can literally ruin peoples lives.”

CCA’s research reveals a fifth (21%) of adult Australians are regularly accessing pirated content despite pirate websites being blocked by ISP’s and Search Engines under site blocking laws.

And, exposing another flaw in the site blocking regime, CCA’s research revealed that a quarter (25%) of the pirates who had encountered a blocked site simply changed their DNS to an Alternate DNS provider to bypass the block.

Burke continues: “We hope the Copyright Enforcement Review will urgently future proof site blocking legislation and close the loophole which is diverting hard-earned revenues from the screen industry and putting Australians online safety at risk.”

Creative Content Australia released the findings as part of the Department of the Attorney General’s public consultation into Australia’s copyright enforcement regime.

The research is available here: https://creativecontentaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2022-Australian-Piracy-Behaviours-and-Attitudes.pdf 

This article was first published on ContentCafe