On Friday 28 April 2017, Justice Burley handed down his decision in the much anticipated site-blocking case commenced in the Federal Court by the music industry. His Honour ordered various ISPs to take reasonable steps to disable access to the KickassTorrents website, which was determined to have the primary purpose of allowing the unauthorised download of musical works, sound recording, movies and books on an industrial scale.
The orders in this case largely mirror those in the Roadshow v Telstra [2016] FCA 1503; Foxtel v TPG & Anor decision handed down in December 2016 (the only other decision made under the relatively new section 115A of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), which provides for a "no-fault" remedy to disrupt business models that involve the distribution of infringing copyright material to Australian consumers). These decisions show a willingness by the Court to allow injunctions under the new site blocking legislation, on similar terms.
A more detailed analysis of the decision will be available in our next edition of IP @ Ashurst.
It is reported that Foxtel and Village Roadshow will be filing further applications to block other copyright infringing websites in the upcoming weeks.
A snapshot of the orders
- The ISPs must, within 15 days, DNS block (or equivalent) the nominated domain names and redirect users to a website which will display the prominent message that the original website has been disabled because the Court has determined that it infringes copyright or facilitates copyright infringement.
- The orders will be in place for 3 years (and can be extended upon application).
- For any new KickassTorrents domain names not already covered by the orders, the copyright owners can file proposed orders to extend the injunction to the new online location/s, which the Court may grant without further hearing if the ISPs do not object to the orders.
- For any entirely new websites, the copyright owners will need to initiate new proceedings.
- The copyright owners were ordered to pay the ISPs’ compliance costs of $50 per domain name.
Authors: Anita Cade, Partner; Marlia Saunders, Senior Associate; and Jessica Norgard, Senior Associate
