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Industry leaders who claim piracy websites ‘show a complete disrespect for the value of music’ are making moves to block Australians from accessing popular networks like Kickass Torrents.
Major music labels Warner, Sony and Universal, along with local company J. Albert & Son filed an injunction in the Federal Court of Australia to have Kickass Torrents and websites like it blocked under the Copyright Act, which was amended to include online infringement in June last year.
The music industry leaders, who hold rights to music freely downloaded on torrent websites, have demanded that major telecommunications companies, like Telstra, Optus and TPG, stop Australians from accessing the illegal networks as their primary purpose is to ‘facilitate the infringement of copyright’, according to The Age.
Major music labels have filed an injunction in the Federal Court of Australia to have Kickass Torrents and websites like it blocked under the Copyright Act
Websites like Kickass Torrets function similarly to controversial piracy network The Pirate Bay and allow Australians to search for files which are hosted by other users and then shared via ‘torrenting’
Jenny Morris, chair of the Australian Performing Right Association, said online infringement is a ‘major threat’ to the sustainability of Australia’s music industry.
‘Illegal offshore sites like Kickass Torrents show a complete disrespect for music creators and the value of music,’ she told The Age.
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Websites like Kickass Torrets function similarly to controversial piracy network, The Pirate Bay, which Foxtel have also moved to stop Australians from accessing.
Kickass users are able to search for files, like television shows or music, that are being hosted by other users. They are then able to download the files from their peers via ‘torrenting’.
Major music labels Warner, Sony and Universal, along with local company J. Albert & Son have been involved
The group made their application in the Australian Federal Court, which is expected to be heard in June
If successful, major teleco providers – like Optus, Telstra and TPG – will be forced to block the sites
‘Illegal offshore sites like Kickass Torrents show a complete disrespect for music creators and the value of music,’ chair of the Australian Performing Right Association Jenny Morris (pictured) said
Legislation passed in June allows copyright holders to make an application to the courts to force internet providers to block access to websites that facilitate copyright infringement.
The first application was made in February by a consortium of major film labels, including Village Roadshows.
Following that Foxtel sought to block access to websites The Pirate Bay and SolarMovie, according to The Age.
A Foxtel spokesperson told the Daily Mail Australia that the television company had applied for a Federal Court injunction to block access to four websites that provide ‘unauthorised access to content created by and for Foxtel.’
‘These sites enable people to steal shows such as Wentworth, A Place to Call Home and Open Slather, depriving the writers, directors, actors, editors, costume designers and many others of the right to be appropriately rewarded for their creative efforts,’ the spokesperson said.
Foxtel, which screens Game of Thrones, has applied to the Federal Court to have four websites blocked
Foxtel have targeted The Pirate Bay which allows users to to easily download illegal content
Foxtel, which has exclusive rights to screen big-name shows like Game of Thrones, as well as Australian programs like Wentworth, targeted The Pirate Bay, which allows users to to easily download illegal content.
While Village Roadshow, which produced movies like The Matrix trilogy, the Ocean’s trilogy, and The Great Gatsby, have specifically targeted streaming site SolarMovie.ph.
‘Initially we’re addressing SolarMovie because they’re a particularly vicious bunch of thieves,’ Graham Burke, the co-chief executive of Village Roadshow, told the ABC.
‘They’re making illicit millions with their disgusting advertising. I mean, if your kids go to that website they’re encouraged to gamble with no age limit; there’s sexual ads there.’
If the court cases are successful, access to piracy sites will likely be blocked by DNS blocking and ‘cache poisoning’, according to the ABC.
Graham Burke, the co-chief executive of Village Roadshow, called SolarMovie a ‘vicious bunch of thieves’
SolarMovie helps internet users watch movies free online by providing links to other streaming content
DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, links website names (like the dailymail.co.uk) to numerical IP addresses.
If a website is on a blocking list, DNS blocking prevents web servers from converting requests to access ExtraTorrents website names to IP addresses.
Cache poisoning redirects web traffic away from websites by returning an incorrect IP address.
Previous attempts by the government to block websites have gone awry, particularly in 2013 when the Australian Securities and Investments Commission blocked a quarter of a million websites when only one IP address was meant to be targeted, according to reports.
Laurie Patton, chief executive of Internet Australia, said it would be impossible to tackle elusive torrenting websites that constantly change their IP address to avoid detection.
Laurie Patton, chief executive of Internet Australia, said it would be impossible to tackle elusive torrenting websites that constantly change their IP address to avoid detection
‘It’s called whack-a-mole: you close down one site and it reopens somewhere else, either at a different IP address or with a different name.’
He said internet speeds could decrease while costs to consumers could rise under the site-blocking method.
It is believed Australians who use a virtual private network, or VPN, which hides a users location from their internet provider, will be able to dodge the blocks, while those who use smaller independent providers who have not been named in the injunction will not be affected.
Applications from Foxtel and Village Roadshow will be heard in May, while the application against Kickass Torrets is set for June.
Australia’s Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill was passed last year under the stewardship of then-Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
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