Australian and Hollywood film studios and pay TV provider Foxtel have dealt a blow to internet piracy after the Federal Court on Friday ordered a raft of pirate websites be blocked in Australia.
Village Roadshow - backed by Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, Disney and 21st Century Fox - and Foxtel have been waging a legal war against pirating sites in a series of court cases.
In a major ruling, Justice John Nicholas ordered Australian internet service providers including Telstra and TPG to block access to 42 piracy sites in a case brought by Village Roadshow.
In a separate case brought by Foxtel, Federal Court Justice Stephen Burley made orders blocking a further 17 sites.
The sites include KissCartoon, Putlocker, GoMovies, EYNY, Kinogo and Prime Wire.
Village Roadshow alleged the sites were infringing copyright in thirteen films and TV series, including The Lego Movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service and The Big Bang Theory.
Justice Nicholas found the sites were engaged in or facilitated "flagrant" copyright infringement, reflecting "a blatant disregard for the rights of copyright owners".
The orders in both cases are expected to target more than 150 domain names as the piracy sites use more than one address online.
Graham Burke, the co-chief executive of Village Roadshow, said it was a "great day for Australia" and pirate sites "employ nobody and create nothing".
If film piracy "goes to its logical extension ... Australia would be a country that wouldn't have Lion, it wouldn't have Red Dog", he said.
Mr Burke said there was "no reason to pirate anymore because movies are now available in a timely fashion and the price is ... as cheap or similar" to America and the United Kingdom.
Lori Flekser, the executive director of not-for-profit organisation Creative Content Australia, said "the blocks today account for around 95 per cent of traffic to infringing sites".
"It's a significant number of people who will be affected and a significant number of sites that will be shut down from providing pirated content," she said.
International TV series including Game of Thrones along with local programs including prison drama Wentworth were among the series being pirated online, Ms Flekser said.
Justice Nicholas made similar orders in December last year requiring the ISPs to block access to sites including SolarMovie, The Pirate Bay, Torrentz and TorrentHound.
The Federal Court orders coincide with the launch on Friday of a major anti-piracy consumer campaign by Creative Content Australia fronted by Australian actor Bryan Brown.
The campaign, The Price of Piracy, targets consumers' self-interest rather than mounting a moral case for consumers to pay for content.
In a TV spot, which is also expected to screen in cinemas, Brown says "new laws have blocked all major pirate sites".
"As for the rest, well, hell of a risk. [You] could end up with viruses, spyware, stolen credit card details, even identity theft. Seems like a high price to pay after all.
"Or you could just spend a few bucks, see it on the big screen, high quality DVD or online."
Ms Flekser said site blocking had been proven to be an effective way of mitigating piracy.
"Not only is there decreasing traffic to pirate sites but there is a subsequent increase in traffic to legal sites," she said.
Ms Flekser said while proxy and mirror sites "often do pop up" after pirate sites were blocked, "they're not always legitimate proxies and mirrors of those sites".
"Our campaign is warning people that these are the sites that are very, very dangerous," she said.
The film studios and Foxtel sought orders under the Copyright Act, which requires ISPs to take "reasonable steps" to disable access to pirate sites, whether or not they are located in Australia.
