Rightsholders, led by Village Roadshow, secured an anti-piracy win in Australia’s Federal Court in late November, as the first site blocking ruling concerning a cyberlocker was handed down. The cyberlocker in question, Mixdrop, allows users to store pirated content and share it online.
It’s not the first court action against Mixdrop. On February 8, 2022, UK courts gave the six largest Internet service providers there – Sky Broadband, BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and EE – ten days to block all traffic with Mixdrop.
Piracy remains a problem in Australia with nearly 1 in 5 Australians regularly accessing copyright infringing content online, according to Creative Content Australia’s 2021 Annual Piracy Behaviours and Attitudes survey.
Previously, pirate sites have been blocked under the ‘Primary Purpose’ test of the legislation, and this is the first time that a site has been blocked under the ‘Primary Effect’ test, which was introduced in 2018 under the amendments to section 115A of the Copyright Act.
Read original article: ISPs ordered to block first ‘Cyberlocker’ pirate site. by Creative Content Australia, Nov 28, 2022
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Why it matters
“Cyberlockers play a key role in the piracy ecosystem and this judgement will disrupt important criminal operators who facilitate pirated content via Mixdrop,” said Graham Burke AO, chairman of anti-piracy organisation Creative Content Australia.
“Site blocking continues to be instrumental in the reduction of piracy in Australia. Ultimately though, it helps to keep consumers safe from the significant risks that come with accessing content unlawfully,” he said.
