Major record companies in Australia want the federal government to block Kickass Torrents in the country.
On April 18, Universal Music Australia, Sony Music Entertainment Australia, J Albert and Son and Warner Music Australia filed documents with a federal court under section 115A of the Copyright Act 1968 seeking legal action to block Kickass Torrents in the country.
According to amendments made to Copyright Act in 2015, right holders can make an application to the Federal Court in forcing Internet service providers (ISP) to block foreign websites, which facilitates copyright infringement.
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) suggests that websites like Kickass Torrents exploits the creativity of artists and makes money from advertising.
"The Government described the sites which are the intended target of these orders as being ones which flagrantly disregard the rights of copyright owners, the 'worst of the worst'. These sites do nothing but exploit the creativity of others and give nothing back to the artists, songwriters, record labels and music publishers whose music is stolen and made available on them, as they make millions of dollars from the advertising which appears on them," says [pdf] an ARIA statement.
The latest case is not the first right holders attempting to block torrents websites in Australia. In early 2016, Foxtel and Roadshow Films announced that they are seeking to have a number of websites blocked in Australia including TorrentHound, IsoHunt and more. These right holders have already made an application in a Federal Court.
Market observers believe that blocking websites such as Kickass Torrents will not solve the copyright infringement issue.
"What's more, site-blocking threatens the efficient working of the Internet. It has the potential to cause disruption and it will impose costs on ISP's that will inevitably be passed on to consumers in higher Internet access fees," says Laurie Patton, CEO of Internet Australia.
Kickass Torrents is one of the most-visited torrent directories in the world. The website boasts that thousands of users communicate and share data on the platform daily in different languages worldwide. The website says that thousands of torrents are added daily and its search engine makes it easy to find the desired files.
It remains to be seen if record companies can successfully get the Federal Court to block Kickass Torrents and other such torrents websites in Australia.
