The proposed legislation requiring ISPs to block access to sites facilitating online infringement has been referred by the Australian Senate to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee (LACALC) for inquiry and report.

The Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015 was in introduced into parliament on 26 March. It provides that a copyright owner may apply to the Federal Court of Australia for an injunction requiring ISPs to block access to a foreign “online location”, where the “primary purpose” of the online location is to infringe, or facilitate the infringement of, copyright (whether or not in Australia).

Phil Dobbie has produced a thought-provoking audio discussion of the Bill, in which the (lack of) effectiveness of site-blocking is explored.

The closing date for submissions to the LACALC inquiry is 16 April 2015. LACALC is due to report on 13 May 2015.