Ireland adds more websites to web-blocking list

Good news for Ireland-based web-blocking fans. The number of websites blocked on copyright grounds in Ireland just grew a little.

Web-blocking is, of course, a preferred anti-piracy tactic of the entertainment industry, despite the limitations of the approach. The main limitation being how easy it is to circumvent the blockades with a simple Google search. But rights owners nevertheless believe web-blocking plays a role in driving people to legit content sites.

Quite how web-blocking works varies from country to country, though usually rights owners get an injunction from a court ordering internet service providers to block specific piracy sites.

The music industry got things going in Ireland by securing a web-block injunction against The Pirate Bay back in 2013. The movie industry then jumped on the bandwagon last year getting three piracy sites blocked.

It’s the movie studios that secured another round of blocks this week, this time against 1337x.io, EZTV.ag, Bmovies.is, 123movieshub.to, Putlocker.io, RARBG.to, Gowatchfreemovies.to and YTS.am.

Although ISPs often moan about web-blocking when it’s new, they usually fall in line once the injunctions start to flow in. That’s true in Ireland too, with none of the ISPs affected by this injunction raising any objections in court.

Says Stan McCoy, boss of the Motion Picture Association in Europe: “As the Irish film industry is continuing to thrive, the MPA is dedicated to supporting that growth by combatting the operations of illegal sites that undermine the sustainability of the sector”.

He goes on: “Preventing these pirate sites from freely disturbing other people’s work will help us provide greater job security for the 18,000 people employed through the Irish film industry and ensure that consumers can continue to enjoy high quality content in the future”.