By now most of us own some sort of device that allows us to stream Netflix. And lo and behold, after a successful launch in Australia, research shows that this reasonably priced alternative has actually helped reduce piracy in Australia.
Maybe Australia isn’t a nation of bloodthirsty, copyright breaching pirates after all?
According to data released by the IP Awareness Foundation, online piracy is on the decline.
It’s not a massive decline. 25% of Australians aged 18-64 pirate, a decrease on 29% from the previous year. That in itself isn’t that interesting a number, but the number of Australians using streaming services like Netflix increased by a similar amount: from 26% in 2014 to 32% in 2015. We have to be careful of claiming definitive links, but that can’t be a coincidence, can it?
Well no, probably not. 33% of respondents who claimed they pirate less actually named reasonably priced alternatives like Netflix as the major reason why.
Regardless, the IP Awareness Foundation attributed the fall in online piracy to recent legislation.
“Piracy has always needed a range of measures to tackle the problem as we all know there is no silver
bullet. This fall in piracy rates is definitely largely attributable to the combination of the government’s new
legislation, plus the ongoing efforts of the creative industries to continue delivering great content at
accessible prices to Australian consumers and the work being done to educate consumers about the impact
of copyright theft”, says IP Awareness Executive Director Lori Flekser.
She also mentioned that, despite a positive sea change in terms of the amount of Australians pirating content, enthusiasm should be tapered: those who claim they are still pirating are apparently pirating more
What’s interesting about this research is the group who conducted it. The IP Awareness Foundation defines itself as a group “committed to raising awareness about the value of screen content and the impact of piracy through research, consumer campaigns and education”. Its stakeholders are cinemas, film distributors, producers, filmmakers, funding bodies, craft guilds, and broadcasters.
Previous research released by Choice suggested the same kind of correlation but it’s actually in the IP Awareness Foundation’s best interests to downplay a reduction in piracy. The fact that their research still shows a reduction in piracy as a result of services like Netflix is actually quite powerful.
At best it shows that if Australians are provided with a fairly priced alternative, they are less likely to pirate content. That’s a positive start.
Comments
112 responses to “Thanks To Netflix, Piracy In Australia Is On The Decline”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Let me join you there…
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAH
Sorry bit late to the party….
HAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAAHAAHAHAAHAAAAA
THUD!
(Sorry, fell off chair)
Welcome AHAHAHAH to the AHAHGHFHFJA floor! BAHAHAHAHA, did you, did you AHAAHAH, did you see what they said *gasp for air* about *heave* legislation. *passes out from lack of oxygen*
I saw this coming a mile away, the government passed the meta data legislation a week before Netflix launched
Also, there’s a bunch of stuff in the TPP about the legislation requirements of each government with regard to piracy… so, expect that to hit parliament early next year.
@whitepointer and @weresmurf.
Why are you two laughing? The claim is perfectly correct; provided one ignores the real possibility that piracy has dropped because users are switching to VPNs thus their movements have become too difficult to measure.
Let me tell you why its funny
Piracy would definitely would not have dropped due the government’s new legislation alone. The fact that netflix got introduced a week after in my eyes, is no coincidence. I can speak on behalf of the people who stopped torrenting and started using netflix.
I would of love to have seen the actual drops in piracy (if any) if netflix wasn’t introduced to AUS a week later.
We told them for fucking years that if we had a reasonably priced structure made available to view/listen to content that a quite sizable chunk of the pirate community would gladly pay money for it.
so very true. of course there will always be pirates no matter how cheap you make things but a lot of people pirate because they cant afford to buy everything or things arent available in their location. make more content available and have it at a fair price a lot of people will pirate less.
since getting foxtel, netflix, and using spotify i find myself downloading much less content. the only stuff i really get are tv shows that we dont get at the same time as america like south park and agents of shield.
I must have missed the massive media blitz they did, announcing the new laws, to have the kind of impact they’re claiming.
Won’t that weaken the Australian economy? people paying other countries for VPN, and have it count towards the US consumer base. I have a bad feeling about this.
I’ll start caring about Australia’s economy when distributors and rights holders here start caring about the local customers and not treating them as walking wallets they expect to have open access to.
yeah well they were still pirating here so I dunno. The $10 per month now spent on Netflix is not a amount per user that will effect an economy.
It’s not the $10 that gets you. It’s the market share. The Netflix traffic statistics will always show larger consumer base in the US than countries like Australia.
In turn they will hesitate to invest in better catalogs for those regions. They will then sell these stats to other companies, when it’s time to invest.
Also, it’s not just Netflix, it’s almost every paid internet service.
That was my reasoning, but I’m no economist.
I can see your logic. Than I guess there is the other part which is “I don’t buy blu-rays from JB no more cause I have Netflix” which would have an impact economically maybe that the $10 for Netflix alone did not?
There is no real possibility of IP addresses revealing the age brackets of those using them.
This is a story about a Q&A survey where people said how old they are, then supplied statements about whether they were pirating more or less. VPNs are not relevant.
I know we all pointed out before it was established that this was exactly what would happen… but I still can’t help but *facepalm*.
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA…
*chokes*… *falls on floor*…. *dies*..
*gets up again*
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHA….
Now could we get fairly priced streaming rentals and purchases $6.99 to rent a new release HD movie is insane money. I think we can agree that the vidiya store is dead to a good proportion of us.
Well shit you can just go right ahead and ignore this
Will do, friend!
im sorry government! you have a long way to go before you provide us with necessary pathways
(NBN, aussie tax) and you think that having more GST is going the right way
my cats are more rational
Your cats seem cool. Mine eats a lot of Pi, and thus has poor decision making skills…
My cat’s breath smells like cat food.
And in conservative news, Netflix fails to stop piracy (at least in the headline!)
http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/new-research-has-found-that-streaming-services-have-failed-to-stop-hardcore-illegal-downloaders/story-fnjwneld-1227567971644
Oh look, a news story from a Murdoch owned media source bashing Netflix…. no conflict of interest there at all 😉
You can tell with these kinds of outlet the “news” is in the headline; sensationalise the headline and people will skim the article and assume the headline is correct.
Precisely. Reading it through, it’s an entirely conflicting article. They don’t give precise or even indicative numbers of ‘hardcore pirates’, is it 10 people? 50? 500,000?
And the headline focuses on “Hardcore” pirates – as noted in this article on kotaku, it looks like they’re being more active despite Netflix. So I would say they’re certainly cherry picking their results.
Not to mention the fact not only is it impossible to prove, it’s impossible to disprove as well. What determines a ‘hardcore pirate’? Who are these ‘hardcore pirates’ etc? It’s tabloid journalism at best, terrible writing at worst…which is standard for Newsmedia.
Not just News Media. Fairfax and even the ABC are guilty of the same crime.
Heck, the only time the ABC has balance is when they air Mad as Hell. Don’t get me wrong, Shaun Micallef is a smart and funny man but it just highlights what the ABC is these days when the comedians are balanced and the so called journalists are not.
True indeed. He’s our John Stewart essentially.
Media Watch on the ABC seems legit. They call people out on the BS with facts all the time.
Wow, Sean really is our John now that you mention it. Seems I am consistent with who I pick as people who are just awesome.
Murdoch press the most trusted press group ever with stables such Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun cherry picking results?!
ER MAH GAWD! SAY IT AIN’T SO?!?!
news.com.au is one of the worst news outlets around, and it’s disappointing because they are the number 1 news outlet in page views.
Their journalists seem to have got their accreditation from a box of fruit loops.
I laugh because I studied journalism with someone who interned there for a while on copy-writing.
At the time they were just thrilled to be there, getting their name in ‘print’. The enthusiasm didn’t seem to last long.
Found out the hard way that News Media’s idea of journalism is Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V from TMZ?
Dunno, we stopped talking. I got the feeling that the editors were cowboys with only loose respect for a style guide, and that applying it was some kind of punishment for people who didn’t know how to sneak in some really page-viewy editorial comment, walking the line between news and click-bait. I could be projecting.
Not a big surprise that Murdoch press is hating on Netflix, how many of their overcharged foxtel customers have they lost, perhaps they only have the “hardcore” pay tv customers left.
Dropping Foxtel bundle prices hasn’t completely stopped all forms of privacy either, how does he respond to that?
They didn’t. Which is all the response we need.
I haven’t heard much talk about dropping Foxtel bundle prices. Dropping Foxtel bundles however, that I’ve seen a couple of times 😉
Read: “Researchers fail to understand meaning of word ‘Hardcore’. Conservative news outlet provides view-supporting diarrhea anyway.”
Jumped in to write this exact original comment after I read the news.com.au article but was beaten to the punch. As a West Australian, whether it is correct or not, legislation means I must blame daylight savings. Damn you fader of curtains with your sorcery!!
Anyway, pretty sad reporting as I think ABC also jumped on the Pirates warship.
I also would question a single figure percentage jump during their research. How the hell can you accurately measure something like this?
Good to know! In other news, increasing police numbers failed to outright eliminate crime.
Guess we better pack up the police force and try something different, because unless you can reduce crime by 100%, there’s no point to trying to reduce it by 25%.
Cheap, affordable access to quality content that even the poorest of poor with an internet connection can possibly afford?
It may have a positive effect on piracy?
*GASP* Say it ain’t so!!!
I wonder if they’ll figure out next that fast access to the internet will mean higher quality information delivered, can improve education potentially, as well as other businesses……
No, goin too far I guess…
no the governments video feed is blurry and you cant tell what the person is saying, so they just take naps instead
Whooaaaaa let’s not get ahead of ourselves here!
I’m sorry, I’ll go into stasis til 3 elections from now… hopefully shit gets sensible. Or more like Idiocracy. This ‘middle point’ we’re at doesn’t really feel great :\
I KNOW. I’m sure I’ll receive death threats for this (because of the choice), but having voted LNP last election I feel like a tit. But now I don’t want to vote for anyone because they’re all absolute boobs :'(
You voted for Abbott? Sir, consider yourself death-threatened.
This isn’t North Korea. The fact that @ashigaru could vote for whom he/she choose is a good sign where in other countries one can be arrested and even killed for not voting for the party currently in power.
I thought the wording of my statement might hint at the sarcasm, but this is the internet and I guess that didn’t come across.
And let’s be perfectly honest – It is infinitely easier and more palatable for incumbent governments to simply rig the elections rather than killing people that don’t vote for them. Genocide is tough to get away with, rigging an election is not.
But anyway, discussing who we voted for and why is basically a requirement for good democracy. I used to live with a girl that voted for Liberal because that’s what her parents did and it’s what she’d always done, and refused to discuss anything remotely politics-related with anyone (and got very angry when you tried to bring it up). Is that a good system for determining governments?
Yes, death threats are obviously awful, but given their near complete lack of a policy platform and their relentless campaign of negativity, I can’t see how anyone could have chosen the liberals. Saying ‘their plan is awful’ is all well and good, but I won’t vote for you unless you have a better alternative, which Abbott & Co did not.
So yeah, take issue with the death threat bit, but we can still question @ashigaru on his decision to vote liberal. I thought it was a bad decision at the time, in hindsight he agrees it was a poor decision, but I’d like to hear this thought on why he made the decision he did.
Oh, I saw the sarcasm. I was just putting your post back into perspective as some posts you never be sarcastic nor joking about. And death threats is one of them. Period.
Negative, yes. But even basic research showed it as truthful. And there were others far more negative – specifically Clive Palmer who played the popular conspiracy that Murdoch was after him whenever Palmer was called out.
And this is the thing, while awful, the Coalition did have an alternative while Labor was all about keeping the status quo which was damaging many things.
Despite what the popular rhetoric was saying, Labor were and still are worse than the Coalition we have now. And because Labor is being obstructionist and not providing actual alternatives, the Coalition, no matter how far down they continue, will still be ahead of Labor.
Labor needs to accept they got a lot of their actions wrong. The main one being letting the state of the budget decay to what we have now. The spend money to make money rule Swan was using only works if both parts are implemented; he only spent money without ensuring money was made faster than it was spent.
Anyhow, this side topic is gone on far enough. The Coalition at the time was the better choice only because it was the lesser of the two evils. Voting for Labor then was to condone their poor decisions and to condone their spending to cover their untenable tax revenue projections.
To summarise it simply, I despised Krudd and voted to kick him out, not keep him in. I should have looked at policy, but even if I did I believe I still would have voted the same way without knowing how drastic the results would be with old mate Tone.
I think what kills me the most is people ask why the hell would you vote for party A because of what they’re doing with x y and z, when in reality that’s not how most people would balance it up. Am I happy about the situation with the refugee crisis, the massive reduction in spending on research for alternate energy etc with the CSIRO and the closure of Aboriginal communities in remote areas? Hell no. I’m more uncomfortable with supposed initiatives that only serve to pat politicians on the back and say “hell yeah, we have a climate council. Oh they haven’t actually done much….” or an ineffectual carbon tax which just ended up going nowhere and was used as a political tool by both parties as a for/against policy instead of actually making a difference. Oh and don’t start me on Rudd saying sorry to the Aboriginal community and then doing sweet fuck all to actually make a difference post that point…
Sorry… I have a complex relationship with politics in this country. It’s why I concentrate on helping those immediately around me, my friends and family and my local community and to do so with welcoming arms. At least I know I can make a difference there 🙂
EDIT: Hahahaha just saw that I had a “to summarise it simply” then went on rant central. IRONNYYYYY!!!
“Despite what the popular rhetoric was saying, Labor were and still are worse than the Coalition we have now. And because Labor is being obstructionist and not providing actual alternatives, the Coalition, no matter how far down they continue, will still be ahead of Labor.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop. Right. There. Calling Labor now obstructionist compared to Tony Abbott and the LNP when they were in opposition is just plain laughable.
Also, arguing against the carbon tax and saying it was useless is just buying into LNP bollocks. It was a damn sight better for the environment than the utterly regressive “direct action” plan – which actually isn’t a long term solution towards more renewable energy, just temporary measures to attempt to “suck up” some of the carbon we’re outputting.
LNP will need to make some MAJOR shifts in policy and direction under Turnbull (who may not be allowed to do so just to some of the idiotic elements in the party) in order to be as good as Labor were previously.
All that said, Labor were pretty frigging dire in their last go around. There is plenty wrong with Labor, and they’ve only finally started to work towards presenting themselves as a viable alternative government as opposed to taking the previous “they’re awful and we’re better because reasons” approach that has apparently become commonplace.
I don’t really have much faith in any of our political parties to make sensible decisions across the board – they all have the various idiocies. But *anything* is better than an Abbott-led LNP. Anything.
Why? The Coalition stank like a rack of pigs in the Nevada, but Labor was no better and Rudd gutted the party with his egotistical behaviour.
I’m not going to lie, it has become a race to the bottom (with Labor still in the lead once one rules out PUP and the Greens) but at the time, the Coalition was the lesser of the two evils and even then there was no voting for them; everyone was voting against Labor.
You certainly won’t see a death threat from me. If anyone has a problem with you voting for the Coalition, they are the ones that need to seek advice because they are the one’s in the wrong and need professional help if they can’t respect other peoples choices in a mature manner.
This is exactly my thinking WiseHacker, but I still feel like I have no option than to vote for a bunch of absolute idiots. My Girlfriend gives me crap for my stance now (I want to donkey vote next election) but to her point it’s about trying to keep the worst party out. At the time I thought that was Labor.
And it still is. If you look at what is happening, what the Coalition is putting out is horrendous.
But what is their competition? What party is putting pressure on the Coalition?
The horrifying reality is no-one. And this has created a political environment where the Coalition are now stepping down, degree by degree, so they can find the boundary where Labor is and then just keep themselves a few inches above it.
Effectively, due to the obstructionism from Labor, the repair our budget needs, etc, is not going to happen and Coalition now see this as a free ride because they are not going to face any competition in the near future.
But to the present, in terms of the worst party, one easily has a choice between PUP and the Greens. PUP because they have Clive Palmer and the Greens who have no idea what they are doing and do nothing other than walk into other issues, parroting what little they read to put on a facade that they are informed but when pushed are shown for what they are.
Classic example being Ludlam saying those who use the envelope analogy have no idea what they are talking about, despite the fact it and the analogy of airline tickets are used to describe the concept of protocol layers and encapsulation in computer networks and have been used for over a decade.
At the end of the day, if you do your own research and feel you have made the right choice at the time, there is no shame. You can hold your head up high with confidence because in this nation we are able to do so and it doesn’t matter if someone even myself has a different view to you as long as the counter action is on the party elements and not yourself.
Those who think less of you because you didn’t vote for party X are the ones who have the problem so don’t ever feel ashamed.
Well put. Thanks again mate!
Well yes and no. I wouldn’t think any less of someone for not voting for a particular party, but if the reason they chose where to cast their votes were terrible, then surely that’s worth discussing. You yourself said that PUP and the greens were the worst parties, so wouldn’t you think less of people that voted for them?
Chastising people for not voting for a particular party accomplishes nothing; having a reasoned discussion around why you should or shouldn’t vote for someone is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy.
@cffndncr
Nope; they are entitled to do so. I’m not in control of their actions.
It’s only a problem if they have a go at me or even disassociate from me (it’s happened more than once) because I didn’t go for Party X.
Even then, I can still hold my head high because the problem lies with them.
No death threats, but a serious question about what kind of policy and candidate research you did before performing possibly the most powerful action you can do in regards to how your life is controlled by government.
I don’t care who you vote for. But please, PLEASE know why you vote for them.
It’s simple to me, I didn’t believe we were making much forward progress under the Labor government, I was sick of the party instability from the people meant to be leading the country, and I thought their fiscal policy was laughable. I didn’t vote for LNP to get in, I voted to get Labor out. Not the best decision I’ve made, but I regret it less than voting for Peter Beattie when I lived in QLD 😉
Wow this thread is serious. Allow me to lighten the mood by doing an enthusiastic dance in the background.
Please, continue.
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do *Carltons*
Do you regret your decision now?
I don’t mean to be mean, I’m honestly interested. A few years ago, I thought there was a snowball’s chance in hell that Abbott would ever be electable, and yet here we are. Alot of the doomsayers turned out to be pretty spot-in terms of what would happen if he got elected (archaic policy decisions, embarrassment on the international stage, etc.), and yet he still made it into power. We’re left with a second-rate NBN, a climate policy in absolute shambles, and none of the promised budget repair… and yet, we knew these things were coming.
I mean, we can’t say for certain what would have happened if he hadn’t won the election, but do you think it would have been better than what we got?
Also as an aside… [foul language ahead]
Why can’t we get a fucking decent candidate to vote for at an election. The fact that a donkey vote is our best option is an absolute joke. LNP is in bed with big business and is fucked, Labor is ib bed with the unions and is fucked, the Greens (while better morally have no coherent policies) are fucked, PUP is a joke, everyone is a joke. The fact that the Sex Party literally has the best collection of policies is actually fucked. FFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKK it make me so angry.Sorry for that, rant over.
Mate I only semi regret it. But more importantly it has taught me more about my political ideologies than any election previously so that can’t be a bad thing. I’d prefer to look forward and understand I need to more intelligently weigh up my choices at the polling booth. Would I still have voted for the coalition? Yes. Doomsayers aren’t always right 😛
No way man!!! wouldn’t want you getting too informed about things…move along and keep digging that coal!!!
Yes master!!!!!!!!!!
lets see the spike when season 6 of GOT starts up.
Me thinks the break in seasons may be a contributing factor for some of the drop off in piracy numbers. I have plenty of friends who are less tech savvy than most and GOT is the only series they pirate.
we will see.
Yeah I didn’t touch ANYTHING until South Park came out a few weeks ago. VPN HO!!!!
How does one measure piracy exactly? Take any of those numbers with a grain of salt.
Also if it’s 2014 vs 2015…well we’re still in 2015 and netflix only came out a few months ago. Have to give it a bit more time than that…you know, maybe an actual year before comparing yearly figures.
As for “hardcore pirates” downloading more…who are these pirates and when was their census taken and what the hell is a hardcore pirate to begin with? Did they go and ask a couple of their mates to get that answer?
1. they only talk about piracy in big Movies/Series
2. they dont talk about .mp3’s or JPEGS (artists get their work ripped all the time)
3. you cant get xxx in Australia (only Canberra or something stupid)
basically whatever they can make the most money off (big companies)… but too a aspiring artist, your work gets mirrored around the world without any income
they will have to go after youtube and facebook next to stop all the music and pictures being copied if they are TRUE about piracy
governments headed down a slippery slope of censorship and they have started now so….
just to check… does that mean they can’t/wont prosecute me for all the porn I pirate?
Wait, I thought porn was free. Google seems to have an ample supply anyway.
Netflix isn’t an overnight fix (which the Government wants. 0% piracy overnight). It took years to become the thing to use in the USA. Give it a couple of years, maybe a change of Government that’ll restore the FTTP NBN plan, and watch that remaining 25% drop even lower. Hell, if Presto & Stan die off, then people will flock to netflix. If Hulu, Crunchyroll & others were allowed to operate here with the same level of content as the USA, then people would be cutting Foxtel and Free-to-Commericals TV right out and go 100% streaming like the USA is beginning to do.
We still have things holding this country back when it comes to streaming media, but this is a good start.
There are several shows that still require piracy to watch. The fact that certain streaming services only have certain shows is still crap. Especially the old ones. I don’t wanna have to pay $10 for stan so I can watch xfiles, $10 for presto to watch buffy, $25 for foxtel to watch walking dead (which will probably be extra because foxtel) and $10 for Netflix to watch other things. That’s over $50 for 3 shows!
Also, when Amazon (something unavailable in Aus) starts showing their Top Gear serieses, what happens then?
We all turn into pirates because what other choice do we have?
Either that happens or doesn’t and nobody notices? Not exactly HBO hoarding GoT is it?
But you could just get the DVDs for old ones. Buffy in particular is dirt cheap on DVD.
And the range of content spread across a number of services here isn’t such a different arrangement from the US. If you want a HBO show, you gotta subscribe to HBO Now, and if you want your shows immediately, you gotta get Hulu Plus, and if you want the huge library of content, you need Netflix. etc, etc.
Sorry, but I can’t buy the argument that piracy is ‘required’ just because consumers think the price is too high.
I am considering grabbing the DVDs. I’m not pirating these shows. Ghost Adventures is a little different as no one shows it. I suggested Netflix could get it, but they don’t have it as yet
Who would have guessed? A couple of streaming solutions came along that’s easier to use than pirating and only costs $10ish a month. This is the sort of things that the masses need to reduce lemming piracy. Always going to have your hardcore pirates and completionists that want to fill 30tb of content, but your average person who just wants to watch some non free to air/non $100/month foxtel is prime for streaming.
Well I’m not assisting that decline. I’ve found the major streaming services here to be rather lacklustre in terms of content, good ol’ torrents are still my preferred option.
Was looking at a third streaming service (current crunchyroll and Netflix) but due to quota restrictions (why the hell are we still quota restricted!!!) and slow adsl (NBN was supposed to be active in my area in March), it just is not viable, and while Netflix is fine, the content is just not there yet. What I would like to see is a service where, even if it is quota restricted, at least streaming media is quota free. Even if it’s just as an incentive not to pirate.
@Wisehacker went too far down the rabbit hole, couldn’t reply anymore!
I just wanted to point out that you seem to have forgotten Abbott’s entire tenure in opposition. “Dr. No” ringing any bells? He wrote the book on being a dickhead in opposition and opposing everything, and then cried foul when Labor returned the favour.
Anyway, this kind of discussion is what we need. I research policy platforms before stepping into a voting booth every time, and make sure I rank all parties, from the Sex Party (#1) to Bob Day’s 1950’s Christian Crusade Party (dead last), and I’m happy to discuss and change my votes if you can convince me that a candidate deserves my vote. What I cannot stand is people that vote based on character (we’ve seen how quickly leaders can be turfed), or some broad party affiliation with no idea of the specifics of their policy agenda.
No I haven’t. Like others, you are implying I am forgetting elements when I am have not.
And Labor is only doing what Abbott did for the sake of it. Even if the measure the Coalition is putting forth was something Labor started.
You think I don’t? My calling the Greens out as not having any policies if proof of that.
Not one of those either. I vote on the collective of the party and its policies. And I voted against Labor because their constant borrowing in response to poorly implemented taxes not covering their locked in spending is what turned me off.
I miss the real NBN but I wasn’t going to vote for a party that allocates (borrowed) funds to cover costings they locked themselves into to save their own faces at the expense of our own economic stability.
And no, I haven’t forgotten what Hockey has done. I know most of the budget blow out is because of costings Labor locked in and his inability to sell a short term budget that needed to happen just giving Labor plenty of fuel to be obstructionist without themselves being questioned.
Either way, as I said before, this side topic is finished. Labor did itself end, cost itself its own votes, and 2013 because a massive protest vote against Labor. If we didn’t have the preference system, there would have been no winner because no-one was freaking voting for anyone.
You can continue if you like but I am not entertaining a done topic any further.
Again, it’s nice to see someone so eloquently lay out my thought process at the time, and to both you @wisehacker and @cffndncr for having a proper discussion. I have certain mates who go red in the face and start shouting at me when I raise any of the above points, especially the argument about the Greens not actually having any decent macro policies in my eyes. Appreciate the discussion 🙂 Oh, can I cancel the order of a bodyguard now cffndncr? 😉
That all depends on who you vote for in the next election…
*but seriously I’m like the most non-threatening person on the planet, you have nothing to fear
I guess we can agree to disagree on the whole ‘obstructionist opposition’ thing – I think if you are going to criticize someone for it, then it should definitely be Abbott (who mastered it) and not Labour who emulated it, but to each their own.
Sorry if the later point came off as being directed at you (i’m not so good at this internet thing, apparently). I just meant that there seems to be a stigma attached to discussing voting intention and political ideology in Australia at the moment, and that doesn’t facilitate a healthy democracy. Discussions like this are useful, and I’m sad that more people don’t have them.
I normally get sick of it because I have friends who become incredibly emotional and basically think less of me as a person because of one decision I made. It’s very over the top if you ask me.
I mean, as far as decisions go, it’s a big one. Arguably one of the biggest ones you, as a citizen, can make. But understanding that every person has different views, different priorities, and therefore will make different choices… that seems beyond a lot of people.
*enthustiastic dances in background*
there is such a party as Bob Day’s 1950’s Christian Crusade Party??
I assume ‘Family First’ is just a cover name.
I have foxtel and netflix and there’s still a bunch of shows i can’t watch unless I pirate them and a bunch of shows that I need to wait ages until they air here in australia.
I’m struggling to comprehend why Netflix has shows available in some countries and not others. All it takes is something simple like a VPN, and boom, you can watch all the other shows. Why not just cut the crap and let everyone watch these shows? Even less reason to pirate, even more reason to get a reasonably priced streaming service.
Regional licensing. And sometimes local censorship laws which forbid certain content but 90% is regional licensing; a relic that needs to die out already.
It’s just nuts that it’s so easy to overcome, but I guess until they learn people will still be working out ways around it
For my part, I’d just edit @Sedres’ comment to say that I’m struggling to comprehend why regional licencing is still something we tolerate.
Well. Obviously pirates and geo-dodgers don’t tolerate it. But I meant government, law-abiding consumers, or the industries who wish they were getting the money that pirates aren’t spending.
Those middle-men in distribution must know where a hell of a lot of bodies are buried or be unbelievably good at spinning a convincing line of utter bullshit about how necessary they are.
Nah, worse than that.
Middlemen don’t want change, because it would put an end to the mega-profit gravy train they are riding.
As for government, forcing the price down has two problems:
* We need major reform, and good luck with that given the reluctance on both sides to fix our tax system, and
* Even if they have the backbone to do something, many will scream blue murder as regulation runs counter to open markets.
So there is no arm twisting on the government. Just the middlemen riding along while government remains lazy both to the middlemen and the needs of the citizens.
…But not too lazy to bend over for rights-holder lobbyists and draft ineffective band-aid/head-in-the-sand legislation.
Or worse, depending on what we see out of the TPP treaty.
Governments like regional distributors like Foxtel because they employ local people and pay local taxes, something Netflix doesn’t do if they can help it (that’s how they keep costs low enough to way undercut the likes of Foxtel – Netflix also has the advantage of no infrastructure and efficiencies of scale). So you can expect the Australian government to start acting counter to Netflix’s interests, and the interests of Netflix subscribers, to defend Foxtel and allow it to continue to generate geoblocks.
There’s nothing mysterious about it if you realize Netflix set up business in Australia with zero Australian employees (they don’t need local employees in the countries where they do business, just tech employees in California and people to do the content deals with Hollywood, also in California) and avoids paying taxes like the plague. Neftlix threatens local Australian distributors like Foxtel who do generate jobs and taxes. Governments like jobs and taxes. So no government anywhere is Netflix’s friend.
For regional licensing to die out, regional licensors will have to die out. Like Foxtel. What are they good for, if they can’t license Hollywood content? The only way around geoblocks is for ALL distributors, everywhere, to have global reach. Even Netflix doesn’t have that quite yet. Foxtel never will and they know it. They’re not going to go out of business without a fight.
This is especially true for me, since for some reason I get the US Netflix.
No, I’m not playing coy! As far as I know, I have neither a VPN nor a plugin that should spoof the IP, but I’m the only one in the house getting the US one. I’m also the only one in the house with a ethernet connection (because wireless a shit).
I don’t know why I have been granted this gift, but it’s not one I’m not grateful for. The Aussie one sucks a mean D compared to the US one. The only advantage is that we get Round the Twist…
Actually the Aussie one isn’t that bad. I use a spoofer (mainly coz I now live in germany and don’t want german subtitles…)
I regularly switch between Australia, US and UK Netflix. The Australian one gets new shows a bit slower, but sometimes if you wanna look for a big blockbuster for a movie night, you find films on the Aus one that the US one has already removed.
@Wisehacker too far down the rabbit hole (again)
I agree everyone is entitled to vote for whichever party aligns most closely to their views. I thought Bob Katter was a nutcase, but I 100% could see why regional voters would choose him. What gets me is people that don’t even care enough to come to that decision. Voting for whoever your parents vote for, voting because you like a particular person without paying the slightest attention to the policies they are championing, or (probably the worst) just voting at random because you don’t care enough to pick a party – I definitely look down on people that do this. It’s a huge decision, it’s worth your time looking into it, and I cannot abide people that don’t take it seriously.