Hillsong fans called out by Music Rights Australia for piracy

Christian band Hillsong United are one of the highest pirated music groups in Australia.

That’s according to Hillsong Church’s publishing arm Hillsong Music Publishing and its local label Hillsong Music Australia. Earlier this month the Christian organisation delivered their submission to the Australian Government in response to the forthcoming anti-piracy code or Online Infringement Copyright Amendment Bill 2015.

Following a precursor noting that all income contributes “toward the greater charitable non-profit initiatives of Hillsong Church,” the submission states: "Despite the demographic of our audience being predominantly Christian, sadly we are not immune to the challenges posed by music piracy in this industry.”

Hillsong states that their act Hillsong United, who topped the ARIA chart in 2013 with fourth LP Zion, is regarded by Music Rights Australia to be one of the highest pirated local music groups.

Hillsong is pushing for the Federal Court to block sites which allow users to infringe copyright.

“We have a great relationship with Vanessa Hutley and the team at Music Rights Australia, however, where sites are not run and hosted from Australua, we are effectively powerless to stop this type of illegal site,” its submission said.

Under the proposed new legislation, there is no limit on the number of overseas websites rights holders can request a judge to block in a single injunction. According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the final impact to the Australian telecommunications industry for the website-blocking legislation is $130,825 a year. 

The Bill is set to be enforced on September 1.