Internet providers to block download website

Four major music firms have secured orders requiring six internet service providers to block access by subscribers to Pirate Bay websites within 30 days in a bid to prevent illegal downloading of copyright music and other material.

About 200,000 Irish internet users access Pirate Bay sites monthly and illegal file-sharing is devastating sales of music, film, and TV with serious consequences for artists, record companies, retailers, and employment, the High Court was told.

EMI, Sony, Warner Music, and Universal, alleged the Pirate Bay activities are causing them €20m losses annually and sought the orders urgently against UPC, Imagine, Vodafone, Digiweb, Hutchison 3G Ltd, and Telefonica O2 Ireland Ltd.

Eircom has already voluntarily blocked access by its subscribers to Pirate Bay and the companies claimed a 2012 amendment to the copyright and related rights legislation meant other ISPs must do the same.

The defendants effectively adopted a neutral stance to the application but some raised issues including that “overblocking” could affect legitimate sites.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Brian McGovern said he would make the orders as they accorded with the amended copyright laws here and the law in the UK and EU. No party argued the orders were inappropriate, he noted.

He fully agreed with the decision of Mr Justice Peter Charleton, who in 2010 said he would have made such blocking orders but a lacuna in the law did not allow him do so. That had since been rectified and the issues raised in the case had been substantially covered by Mr Justice Charleton and did not raise a novel issue of law.

The form of the orders, made under the Copyright and Related Rights Act, also mean the music companies will not have to make fresh applications to court if Pirate Bay changes its location on the internet.

During the hearing, the providers accepted they should meet the costs of blocking the Pirate Bay sites but issues remained about who was liable for the legal costs.

While none of the defendants were wrongdoers in the case and had effectively adopted a neutral stance apart from engaging in some legitimate dialogue with the companies, the defendants were the conduit through which the wrongful activity conducted by the Pirate Bay has been effected, said the judge.

There was no doubt that activity has caused, and continues to cause, substantial financial damage to the music companies, he said.

The music companies had also asked the court to take into account, when deciding costs issues, that the new legislation meant the providers now had immunity from liability for any breach of copyright arising from illegal downloading.

EMI chairman Willie Kavanagh, also chair of the Irish Recorded Music Association, had said the application was supported by the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency (representing book, magazine and journal publishers); the Motion Picture Association; Games Ireland; and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (music composers and publishers).