The Digital Content Guide is a place to find digital services that provide Australians with access to licensed music, movies, TV shows, games, eBooks and sport. On the site you can find information about different services and you can click through directly to them. Australians have a wide choice of licensed digital content services across different devices and platforms. The choices continue to grow. This site is designed to help you easily find the content you want from a licensed service.

The Digital Content Guide is a joint initiative of members of the Australian creative content industries. These include:

• Australia New Zealand Screen Association
• APRAAMCOS
• ARIA
• Copyright Agency Ltd
• Foxtel
• News Corp Australia
• Village Roadshow

We have made every attempt to make the site as complete as possible. However new services come online all the time.  What we can say is that every service listed here offers licensed content. If you think we are missing a service, you can let us know here.

If I can’t find a service on the Digital Content Guide does that mean it is illegal?

We are working hard to list all the licensed services available to Australian users under the categories we have set up. If you cannot find a service here it could mean that we have not yet listed it, or it may mean that the service is not a licensed service. If you are unsure and would like to check with us, you can contact us here.

If you have a digital service that provides access to licensed  content for Australian users, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us here.

Creative content is protected by copyright.  Unlicensed services infringe the owner’s copyright when they use the copyright material without the permission of the copyright owner. If these services offer the content to the public without permission that is an infringement of the owner’s copyright.

Many of these unlicensed services are made to look like they are licensed to fool you. The Digital Content Guide helps you find out if you are using a licensed service or not. If you cannot find the site on this guide that is a good indication that it is not licensed. But if you are still in doubt click here and we will try to help you find out the answer.

Filesharing is the act of uploading and sharing content online. Filesharing sites collate content and enable this to happen. Filesharing sites are not illegal but when the site is used to copy and share content that has been obtained without the permission of the copyright owner, then that is an infringement of copyright.

Many sites have been established for the express purpose of offering unlicensed content and these sites are referred to as illegal sites. They make their money from advertising revenues and do not support the legitimate market. They do not offer licensed content.

Using the content from these illegal sites does infringe the copyright owner’s rights. They get nothing for their work. We know they can look legitimate and telling the difference can be confusing. By using the services listed in this guide you can ensure that the content you access is always licensed. If you are in doubt click here to ask.

Copyright protects the expression of an idea by conferring exclusive rights on the owner; it encourages people to ‘create’. When someone creates content, there is a whole system of rights and obligations that come into play. These rights and obligations outline what someone can and can’t do with the material. Copyright is an important set of rights granted to the creator of creative works which gives them the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, perform or broadcast the work in public. Copyright “owners” can also license or permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to others.

Downloading: Accessing content by transferring the file directly to your computer or device.

Streaming: Accessing content by playing it directly from the service, without the need to download and store it on your computer or device. Generally requires a live internet connection.

Subscription service: A paid service that enables users to access content for a regular user fee. Content is generally streamed, or can be accessed only while the user remains a paid subscriber.

Ad-funded service: A service that provides users with free access, while paying the rights holders from advertising income.

Licensed service: A website that provides access to content that is distributed within copyright permissions from the rights holders.

Filesharing: Uploading, sharing and downloading content using centralised servers and specific software