Pirate Party Australia are still deeply dissatisfied with the lack of consumer involvement in talks held by the Attorney-General’s Department with ISPs and content rights holders.

The talks that occurred on the 23rd of September last year deliberately excluded consumers from any negotiations or deliberations, as documents released under the Freedom of Information Act in December reveal. The documents frequently reference the importance of the consumer, and yet indicate a continual push for an industry-based solution. “Relevant consumer groups [will be consulted] once industry discussions have reached an appropriate stage”[1] says one document.

The documents also indicate that consumers are not considered key-stakeholders in regards to online copyright infringement, and yet urge industry to consider the consumer interests.

“The Government cannot know what ‘consumer interests’ are if relevant consumer groups are consistently turned away,” said Brendan Molloy, Pirate Party Australia Secretary.

Pirate Party Australia wishes to point out that the interests of industry and the interests of the consumer are not the same, and that it is not democracy when industry are the only ones given audience.

“We need a ‘consumer-based solution’ to be tabled; but every attempt to engage in discussion has been met with stubborn refusal to acknowledge that consumers and industry aren’t exactly seeing the matter eye-to-eye. It’s a simple case of ‘money talks’,” continued Molloy.

Another document says “the Government, through creating the optimum legislative framework to support business, creative endeavour, and legitimate private activity, also has a role [in solving online copyright infringement]”[2]. Pirate Party Australia questions how “legitimate private activity” is to be defined, and by whom.

“There is a very clear picture emerging: consumers are to have no control over how they interact with the images that shape their world. We are surrounded by images and sounds that influence the way we interact with each other, the way we communicate, but we have few rights over them. Our cultural participation is limited to the depth of our pockets according to the copyright industry’s failing business model. The consumer needs more rights over their culture,” commented Mozart Palmer, spokesperson for Pirate Party Australia.

“At its very heart, this is an issue about how our laws are made; about the integrity of our democratic process. The government must ensure that the decision making process is inclusive and transparent. All we have seen so far is secrecy, exclusion and opacity,” said Party Treasurer Rodney Serkowski.

[1] http://blog.serkowski.net/wp-content/foi/Serkowski%20-%20part%20%28a%29%284%29.PDF
[2] http://blog.serkowski.net/wp-content/foi/Serkowski%20-%20part%20%28b%29%284%29%202.PDF