Pirate Bay and other torrent sites blocked in Aus

The Federal Court has ruled in favour of Foxtel and Village Roadshow in the battle to see copyright-infringing websites blocked in Australia.

Internet companies were given 15 business days by Justice John Nicholas yesterday to implement blocks on Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt, streaming service SolarMovie and notorious torrenting site, Pirate Bay, as well as many more proxy and mirror services.

The decision comes as a significant victory for copyright holders in Australia. It has been several years in the making and a move that required legislative change and cooperation between rightsholders and ISPs. Despite this, the ruling marks the first of its kind in Australia after respondents Telstra, Optus, TPG and M2 have long argued that copyright holders should cover the associated costs.

More than 50 ISPs were given a choice over how to implement the blocks. This may include blocking, IP address blocking (or IP re-routing), URL blocking, or any other means approved by a rightsholder.

While the infringing sites may still be accessible, the judge noted that people who continue to visit the blocked sites should receive due notification of the circumstances. Upon visiting the site, people will see a warning page informing them the site cannot be accessed. Alternatively, ISP’s can redirect all traffic to a landing page.

The Internet service providers will have to cover the costs of putting their own blocking mechanisms in place. Rightsholders, however, must pay the ISPs’ legal costs and the costs of moving forward.

The ruling and these initial blockades may well be the beginning of a mass crackdown on pirate sites in the country across the next couple of years. The precedent of blocking infringing websites has now been set which will presumably see a greater influx of rightsholders filing legal action to ban additional pirate sites and increase the protection of their intellectual property.

While Pirate Bay will be officially inaccessible in Australia, another major torrenting site, KickassTorrents, continues to operate.

However, a case, lead by Music Rights Australia, was initially filed against the website in mid-April on behalf of the three major labels, along with music rights management company Alberts and local collection society APRA AMCOS.