Aussie music and film sectors renew piracy fight with web-blocks

Australia’s music and film sectors have initiated Federal Court action to continue their fight against piracy.

They are utilising web-block initiatives which came into play in Australia in 2015 and later strengthened through the Copyright Amendment Act 2018.

Music Rights Australia is coordinating the move on behalf of the music industry to force ISPs to block their customers from accessing stream-ripping sites which can convert the audio of a YouTube stream into an MP3 file to download.

Stream-ripping is now the most prevalent (32%) and fastest growing form of online piracy.

The MRA move is backed by APRA, Sony Music Australia, Universal Music Australia and Warner Music Australia.

In their sight are 2conv.com, Flv2mp3.by, Flv2mp3.com, Flv2mp3.org, Convert2mp3.net, Flvto.biz and Flvto.com.

MRA told Computerworld, which broke the story, “These no-fault injunctions are used to block the worst of the illegal sites which undermine the local and international music industry.

“We use this effective and efficient no fault remedy to block the illegal sites which undermine the many licensed online services which give music fans the music they love where, when and how they want to hear it.”

Meantime the Australian movie industry has added 79 more pirate sites to its hit list.

Those behind this move include Foxtel, Village Roadshow, Paramount, Columbia, Disney, and 20th Century Fox as well as distributor Madman.

The 79 online locations in 99 domains are accused of offering illegal streaming or downloads, or providing links to services that do.