[JURIST] The Australian parliament on Monday passed the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015 [official website] to prevent the online piracy of film and TV shows. The approved legislation gives rights holders [Guardian report] the chance to go to a federal judge and get overseas websites that have the “primary purpose” of creating copyright infringement issues blocked. Australian internet providers will be forced to follow a judge’s order in disabling access to the infringing location should a rights holder succeed in their blocking request. Proponents of the law have said it will protect rights holders, but opponents say it will do to much to restrict legitimate uses of the Internet.

Many countries have had difficulty in recent years with figuring out how best to resolve internet piracy issues. In June 2013 a new anti-piracy bill allowing websites to be blocked by internet service providers (ISPs) upon copyright infringement claims passed through [JURIST report] its final two readings in Russia’s State Duma. In 2012 the Spanish government approved the Spanish government approved a new law [JURIST report] that created a government agency with the authority to force ISPs to block certain websites that are involved in pirating copyright materials. In 2011, the Somali parliament rejected legislation [JURIST report] designed to combat piracy by criminalizing piracy and improving internal mechanism for trying alleged offenders. In 2010 the Irish High Court ruled that the country does not recognize [JURIST report] any laws that would allow ISPs to suspend service to customers suspected of Internet piracy.