Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Australian courts block various Kickass-linked piracy sites | UNLIMITED | CMU

KickassTorrents

After Australian copyright law was changed in 2015 to allow web-blocking for the first time, the movie industry decided to seek a web-block injunction against old favourite The Pirate Bay, while the local music business picked the then leading piracy hub KickassTorrents as its for first target for a web blockade.

Then the bloody US authorities shut KAT down and had the Polish authorities arrested the man behind it, meaning the record companies were now asking the courts for an injunction forcing Australian internet service providers to block access to a non-existent website.

However, keen to proceed, the labels altered their web-block application to cover various spin-off sites that emerged following the shutdown of KAT, and various other piracy set ups that exploited the Kickass brand. Australia’s Federal Court has now granted that injunction, ordering 20 Australian net firms to block a number of KAT-related sites.

Web-blocking, of course, is a preferred anti-piracy tactic for the entertainment industry in those countries were it is available as on option.

It’s generally quite easy to circumvent the blockades and access blocked websites with a simple Google search, though the music and movie industries reckon web-blocking still performs a useful deterrent and educational tool in the fight against online copyright infringement.

[from http://ift.tt/2lvivLP]

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