Australia’s Federal Court has ordered the blocking of an updated set of domains as the battle over online piracy continues.
The two injunctions, requested by four media companies, will require internet service providers (ISPs) to block the new domains for three years from today.
Copyright law expert Andrew Christie says it’s a continuation of Australia’s approach to clamping down on “rampant” copyright infringement.
“This is all about blocking sites, it’s not about going after those downloading the films,” he said.
“It’s too difficult to go after individual downloaders and what [copyright owners] really want is to deal with this problem upstream.”
The judgement, which was handed down today, revealed the latest list of domains to be blocked by ISPs.
Foxtel requested that 117 domains be blocked.
Roadshow, Disney and Village Roadshow jointly requested that 122 domains be blocked.
These two rulings extend a series of earlier injunctions from 2020, and apply to 49 Australian ISPs.
In 2018, amendments to the Copyright Act were made to streamline efforts to combat online copyright infringement.
Former communications minister Paul Fletcher said at the time: “Australia’s piracy rate still remains higher than in countries with strong copyright enforcement frameworks.”
“There is still a proportion of Australian users who seek out infringing sites and there are still pathways for them to get to these sites, including blocked sites,” he said.
(ABC)
