Digital Rights Watch has renewed calls for Australia’s mandatory data retention scheme to be scrapped, after revelations that the Government has no oversight over whether telecommunication companies are storing data outside of Australia’s borders.
There is no protection of freedom of speech in Australian law, unlike many other countries. There is an implied right of freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution, but this right is about facilitating social democracy, and is not a general protection. There are many laws regulating speech, including (but not limited to) section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 Cth (RDA), defamation law and consumer law that protects against misleading representations.
It’s copyright week! This week, Digital Rights Watch is joining a group of organizations in reflecting on how copyright policy can promote, and not diminish, a robust, accessible public domain.
Digital Rights Watch have expressed their concern over a Federal Court ruling that Australian ISPs must block access to 61 domains registered by file-sharing websites The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, TorrentHound and Torrentz.
2016 has been a busy year for digital rights policy in Australia. We’ll be hosting a quick update on the policy issues we have been following, including copyright reform and privacy issues.
