The ADA agrees with the ACCC that Australia would benefit from a standardised takedown system for the removal of copyright infringing content posted by third parties to digital platforms. However, such a scheme should be introduced through extending the well established safe harbour system which applies to all other service providers in these circumstances, to include all platforms to which the mandatory standards would apply.

We therefore recommend the ACCC follow previous government reports, most notably that of the Productivity Commission’s Intellectual Property Inquiry,1 by recommending that the existing safe harbour system be extended to all service providers, and that a relevant code be created under that scheme to deal with any concerns the ACCC believes would remain outstanding.