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Australia: Further site-blocking court action

August 18, 2017

By Colin Mann

Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel has welcomed actions taken by the Federal Court to block an additional 127 domain names which provide access to 15 pirate streaming sites and two torrent sites.

The move accompanies Federal Court orders in a separate proceeding, instituted by the film industry, blocking over 40 piracy websites.

The latter action requires carriage service providers to take reasonable steps to disable access to online locations outside Australia infringing or facilitating infringement of copyright.

As a result of Foxtel’s site blocking applications, the action increases the number of domain names blocked by the Federal Court to over 250. In total, 65 major piracy sites have now been ordered to be blocked by the Federal Court.

The proceeding instituted by Foxtel requires Australian ISPs TPG/iiNet, Optus, Telstra and Vocus to block the domain names of piracy streaming sites Yes Movies, Vumoo, Los Movies, Cartoon HD, Putlocker, Watch Series 1, Watch Series 2, Project – Free TV, ProjectFreeTV, Watch Episodes, Watch Episode Series, Watch TV Series, The Dare TV, Putlocker9.is, Putlocker9.com, as well as Torrent sites 1337x and Torlock.

In a Statement, Peter Tonagh, Foxtel Chief Executive, said the operator welcomed the judgment, describing it as another critical step in combating online piracy, which continues to undermine Australia’s creative industry. “The Government’s passage of the site blocking legislation, and the Court’s continued willingness to impose site blocking orders, illustrates the gravity of the threat and the concern we should all have about protecting the hard work of the actors, writers, directors and production teams involved in creating the programming we all love.”

“Foxtel believes in the importance of educating people that accessing pirated content is not a victimless crime and we will continue to do our part in shedding light on the seriousness of intellectual property theft, while simultaneously helping to ensure our content is available quickly, easily and at a price that suits their budgets,” he confirmed.

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