Foxtel has welcomed the Federal Court’s decisions to block five of the largest online piracy sites using legislation passed by the Parliament in 2015, hailing the judgement as a major step in combatting piracy in Australia.
As reported by iTWire, Foxtel and Village Roadshow succeeded in their bid in the Federal Court to force ISPs to block a number of sites they say are infringing their copyright.
The court handed down its judgement on Thursday afternoon in the case which was filed by Foxtel and Village Roadshow in February. ISPs were required to block The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and SolarMovie, according to the court ruling.
Commenting on the court ruling, Foxtel Chief Executive, Peter Tonagh said, “Piracy does great damage to Australia’s content creating industries and we were delighted that the Government and Parliament recognised this by passing these new legislative provisions last year.
{loadposition peter}}“This judgment is a major step in both directly combating piracy and educating the public that accessing content through these sites is not OK, in fact it is theft.”
Tonagh says the Copyright Act now gives copyright owners and exclusive licensees the ability to seek injunctions against ISPs ordering them to block access to overseas-based sites that infringe or facilitate copyright infringement.
“We are playing our part to reduce the attractiveness of piracy by making content available in a timely manner, at different price points, and on multiple devices, Tongagh notes.
“More broadly, the content creation industries will continue to educate the public on the harm piracy does and how to get access to content in a legitimate manner.
“This judgement gives us another tool to fight the international criminals who seek to profit from the hard work of actors, writers, directors and other creators the world over.
“We have already seen successful implementation of similar site blocking efforts overseas and are looking forward to a reduction in online piracy here.”