Foxtel has welcomed the Federal Court’s latest actions to further address online piracy, with orders in a proceeding instituted by Foxtel to block an additional 127 domain names that allow access to 15 pirate streaming sites and 2 torrent sites, and orders in a separate proceeding instituted by the movie industry to block over 40 pirate sites. 

In the proceeding instituted by Foxtel, Australian ISPs TPG/iiNet, Optus, Telstra and Vocus, will be required block the domain names associated with pirate streaming sites: Yes Movies, Vumoo, Los Movies, Cartoon HD, Putlocker, Watch Series 1, Watch Series 2, Project – Free TV, ProjectFreeTV, Watch Episodes, Watch Episode Series, Watch TV Series, The Dare TV, Putlocker9.is, Putlocker9.com, as well as Torrent sites: 1337x and Torlock. 

The news follows last year’s blocking of some of the largest online piracy sites and increases the number of domain names blocked by the Federal Court, as a result of Foxtel’s site blocking applications alone, to more than 250.  In total, 65 major piracy sites have now been ordered to be blocked by the Federal Court.

Foxtel CEO, Peter Tonagh, said, “Foxtel welcomes today’s judgment as another critical step in combating online piracy, which continues to undermine Australia’s creative industry. The Government’s passage of the site blocking legislation, and the Court’s continued willingness to impose site blocking orders,  illustrates the gravity of the threat and the concern we should all have about protecting the hard work of the actors, writers, directors and production teams involved in creating the programming we all love. 

“Foxtel believes in the importance of educating people that accessing pirated content is not a victimless crime and we will continue to do our part in shedding light on the seriousness of intellectual property theft, while simultaneously helping to ensure our content is available quickly, easily and at a price that suits their budgets.”

Today’s court action coincides with the launch of Australia’s biggest ever anti-piracy campaign, dubbed ‘The Price of Piracy’. The campaign is led by Creative Content Australia, and emphasises the need to protect intellectual property rights while underscoring the threat of content theft on the creative industries. ‘The Price of Piracy’ also illustrates the dangers of malware, ransomware and identity theft associated with copyright infringing websites.