The Federal Court of Australia has asked internet service providers to block 22 more sites offering pirated access to movies via torrents and streaming services.
Roadshow Films, Village Roadshow, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, Warner and Netflix brought actions in Federal Court naming the Australian ISPs as defendants.
ISPs have 15 days to disable access to the sites mentioned in the ruling. Target sites are IYF, Watchmoviesonlinepk, Kokoa, Bingewatch, Watchanimedub, Goku, Koreanz, Divicast, Bt4g, 5movierulz, Moviestowatch, Ridomovies, Eztvstatus, Jexmovie, 9anime, Animesuge, Animepisode, Animension, Animetake, Duboku.one, Movie4kto.net and Onionplay.se
Judge John Halley named Telstra and various companies from Optus, Vocus, TPG, Vodafone along with Aussie Broadband as respondents who must deactivate the targets.
The main service of the targeted sites was often to offer free access to a wide variety of other movies and TV shows. โMost of them carried advertising. I am satisfied that this evidence establishes that the primary purpose or effect of each of the Targeted Online Locations is to infringe or facilitate copyright infringement,โ Judge Halley said.
Neither site had received permission to make the content publicly available.
Judge Halley said that the operators of the sites had shown a "contempt for copyright in general". โMany include copyright compliance statements, claim copyright, offer large catalogs of infringing material, and most make money by displaying advertising to users.
โAt least three of the targeted online locations are the subject of orders from a court in another country for reasons related to copyright infringement.
"Given the volume and flagrantness of the violation, I am convinced that disabling access to Target's online locations is a proportionate response and that it is in the public interest."
Movie and entertainment companies have sought dozens of bans on illegal streaming and torrenting services since the days of The Pirate Bay more than 10 years ago.
However, websites claiming to link to The Pirate Bay (mostly via VPN) continue to proliferate, as do references to other torrent services.
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