Between the landmark introduction of music streaming and vinyl’s equally improbable and relentless comeback, you’d be forgiven for thinking those two factors alone would be enough to stem music piracy in Australia.
Well, look, they’ve done a decent job, but the courts are doing their best to stamp out the rest.
Kick Ass Torrents is the latest torrent-hosting site to be officially nuked by the Federal Court, after a ruling on Friday which found its primary purpose was to infringe on the copyrights of a stack of big-name artists.
The label representatives of artists including Justin Bieber, AC/DC and Major Lazer successfully argued that ISPs should do whatever they can to block internet users from accessing Kick Ass Torrents. They have 15 days to comply.
This isn’t the first ruling of its kind. A landmark decision last year put The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, IsoHunt and others onto the block-list late last year. Film studios want in on the action too, with an eye to block sites like Limetorrents and Megashare.
As this is the internet, and the internet is full of crafty buggers, you can expect Kick Ass Torrents to reappear under new domains in the coming weeks. Each new iteration of the site will also be blocked, but we’ll probably see that whole whack-a-torrent thing play out once more.
So, you can either roll the dice with some Argentinian or Romanian domain, or you could just pick up that limited pressing record you’ve had your eye on.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty.
