In December 2016 and after substantial work to amend the law, an Australian court ordered the lock from various pirate sites spearheaded by the infamous The Pirate Bay.
In the five years since then, movie companies like Roadshow Films, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, Warner, and most recently Netflix have gone to court time and again to block hundreds of more sites. The goal, as always, is to curb rampant piracy of movies and TV shows.
New request for a court order blocking
In September 2021, these companies, together with Television Broadcasts Limited and TVBI Company Limited, filed a new application with the Federal Court, seeking the blocking of more than 100 domains under Section 115A of the Copyright Act of 1968. The application was targeting 48 ISPs operated by Telstra. , Corporate groups Optus, Vocus, TPG and Vodafone.
The applicants alleged that the 101 domains refer to 63 "pirate" sites that infringe or facilitate the infringement of copyrights in a large number of films and television programs that they own. Furthermore, they reported that since the sites (full list below) are operated from outside Australia, they are eligible for lockdown.
The court issues a judgment
In an extremely comprehensive trial this week, Judge Nicholas ruled largely in favor of the applicants. It acknowledged that the copyright holders had made reasonable efforts to identify the people behind the sites and that none of them had requested to be part of the process, despite being notified of the legal action.
"The evidence satisfies me that each of the online target locations identified in the applicants 'proposed orders infringes or facilitates the infringement of applicants' copyrights in several known motion pictures," he wrote.
"I am also satisfied that the target online locations have the primary purpose, or primary effect, of infringing or facilitating copyright infringement on a large number of commercially released motion pictures."
A dynamic court order applies
When blocking court orders are issued against specific domains in Australia, specific sites sometimes choose to change the way they operate. This may include changes to domain names and / or IP addresses in the hope that the locks can be bypassed.
To counter this threat, so-called 'dynamic injunctions' allow copyright holders to notify ISPs of changes and, if no objections are received, sites available through modified means will also be blocked, if they are. copyright holders have a good faith belief that they are. the same platforms.
That's the case here too, but in this app, TV and movie studios have also tried to expand their ability to block sites that aren't necessarily part of the original order.
Studies try to block 'pirate marks'
In recent years there has been a trend of launching pirated sites with the same naming conventions as others, in an attempt to attract users who may be familiar with a specific 'brand'. A good example is that of '123Movies', which can be found replicated by numerous competitors that are not necessarily connected to the original site.
An expert for the plaintiffs told the Court that when a "branded" pirate site is blocked, new websites with the same functionality appear on similar but different domains. An attorney for the applicants argued that new iterations of "online locations" can sometimes appear substantially similar to the original blocked sites, but with aesthetic or structural differences, such as layouts or different content categorizations.
It appears that copyright holders would like functionally similar websites with similar names to be blocked in the original order. However, the judge was not satisfied with the approach. A site with a different domain, IP address, and URL is not the same "online location" under copyright law, even when its branding is similar to that of a blocked domain.
In reaching a middle ground, the judge offered a compromise whereby copyright holders can make further requests in the proceeding to extend existing orders to include new target "online locations" that appear to be associated with " Online locations "already blocked, provided that the former is available substantially the same content as the latter.
If there are no objections raised by the ISPs or the site operators, the Court will consider the request.
The list of domains that will be blocked in the first instance is as follows:
flixtor.to, flixtor.se, flixtor.vc, flixtor.it, flixtor.nu, flixtor.gy, cipflix.to, 123movies.directory, 123movies.tools, 123movies-one.com, fmovies.gallery, watchsomuch.org, watchsomuch.tv, snahp.it, f2movies.to, emovies.io, 0123movies.net, 0123movies.cat, bflix.to, tornadomovies.co, ev01.to, ev01.net, zoechip.com, himovies.to, gotohub. com, theofficetv.com, movgotv.com, hdmovie5.com, hdmovie2.com, dhmovie5.net, hdmovie5.co, hdmovie5.in, new-movies123.link, movieorca.com, streamm4u.com, unblockninja.com, attacker. tv, topnow.se, torrentbay.to, 123movies.market, 1-23movies.cc, 123moviesgo.tv, 123moviesgo.ac, real-123movies.best, 123movies.coffee, 123movies.review, 123movies.online, 123movies4u.li, 123moviesfun.ch, 123moviesme.online, watchseries.ninja, putlocker123.me, 123movieshub.tc, 123moviesub.io, 123movies.autos, yify-torrent.cc, 123moviesgoto.com, cineb.net, yifymovies.tv, yifytv.top, gogomovies.to, hurawatch.com, hurawatch.ru, the123movies.eu, the123movies.stream, sflix.to, x265.c lub, psa.one, psarips.uk, psarips.xyz, psarips.com, psarips.one, psarips .in, psarips.net, psarips.org, psarips.eu, psarips.top, movies7.to, kisscartoon.uk, kisscartoon.love, watchcartoononline.bz, dandanzan.com, dongphym.net, dongphym.com, tvhai.org , 1337x.gd, xmovies8.io, myflixer.ru, flixtor.video, flixtor.one, bflix.watch, 94itv. net, 94itv.app, tangrenjie.tv, dramacool.bz, dramacool.vc, dramacool.fm, dramacool.ai, dramacool.bid, kissasian.la, kissasian.video
The Federal Court ruling can be found here
