The Federal Court has just decided to drop the banhammer on several prominent torrent-hosting websites, telling internet service providers to block users from accessing sites deemed to be complicit in copyright infringements.
Thanks to a successful complaint from Foxtel and Village Roadshow, ISPs including Telstra, Optus, and TPG will now be required to block users from domains owned by The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and streaming site Solar Movie.
It’s the first successful use of Australia’s site-blocking legal provisions, meaning that ISPs will now be forced to block users from offending domains within 15 days of a successful complaint.
You’re probs thinking those bad, bad sites could just establish new domain names in that time – well, there’s a rolling injunction system built in, meaning ISPs can block any new sites that are obviously clones with far-flung Mongolian or Botswanian IP addresses.
While the onus of, y’know, blocking the infringing sites rests on the ISPs, Justice John Nicholas said rights holders will have to chip in $50 for every site they want blocked. If a block sparks a court case, ISPs also won’t be liable for associated legal costs.
That’s a big W for the ISPs, who are more concerned with their users than they are about chasing up copyright complaints. It also means complainants will have to carefully assess the cost benefit of seeking to block a site, but hell – the option is definitely there now.
We’ve come a long way from LimeWire, hey?
