[LINK] Australian ISPs to block piracy sites from the pocket of content owners

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Australian ISPs to block piracy sites from the pocket of content owners
The Australian Federal Court has ordered ISPs to block piracy websites,
with content owners having to pay for the privilege.
By Asha McLean
ZDNet
December 15, 2016
http://www.zdnet.com/article/australian-isps-to-block-piracy-sites-from-the-pocket-of-content-owners/

Australian pay TV provider and telco Foxtel and media company Roadshow
Films have been attempting to get several internet service providers
(ISPs) including Telstra, Optus, M2, and TPG to block access to foreign
piracy websites through an Australian Federal Court order.

On Thursday, Justice Nicholas granted the former their wish under
section 115A of the Copyright Act, however at a cost to rights holders.

The ruling means that piracy sites such as The Pirate Bay, Torrentz,
isoHunt, and TorrentHound will need to be blocked by ISPs, with content
owners -- such as Foxtel and Roadshow -- to pay a fee of AU$50 per
domain name in order to do so. Site blocking will also need to be
performed under court supervision.

"The applicants pay Telstra's, Optus', M2's, and TPG's compliance costs
calculated at the rate of AU$50 per domain name the subject of DNS
blocking undertaken for the purposes of complying with order two
hereof," Nicholas J said in his judgment.

Content owners now have the ability to seek injunctions against ISPs
ordering them to block access to overseas-based sites that infringe or
facilitate copyright infringement.

Under these changes to the Copyright Act, ISPs are required to block
known piracy sites within 15 days, displaying a message to customers
that it has been given a court order to do so.

Additionally, it was ruled that content owners would be required to pay
the ISPs legal costs pertaining to the site blocking case.

"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," Foxtel chief
executive Peter Tonagh said following the ruling.

"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 also said that Foxtel is playing its part to reduce the
attractiveness of piracy by making content available in a timely manner,
at different price points, and on multiple devices, in a bid to deter
people from obtaining material illegally.

Previously, Foxtel and Roadshow were fighting separate battles, with
Justice Nicholas formally joining the two court proceedings in June,
saying they had enough in common to be heard as one. This was despite
Roadshow seeking to block a video-streaming site, Solarmovie, and Foxtel
taking issue with four torrent websites involving 61 domain names.

After wrestling to define what constitutes an "online location" in June,
Telstra, Optus, M2, and TPG argued that they should not have to bear the
costs of compliance in implementing website blocks against the
torrenting sites.

Costs were not determined prior to the passage of the Copyright
Amendment (Online Infringement) Act 2015, which passed both houses of
parliament in mid-2015 and allows rights holders to obtain a court order
to block websites hosted overseas that are deemed to exist for the
primary purpose of infringing or facilitating infringement of copyright
under Section 115A.

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
email: brd at iimetro.com.au
web:   www.drbrd.com
web:   www.problemsfirst.com
Blog:  www.problemsfirst.com/blog