Eight Illegal Streaming Sites Blocked As Ireland Steps Up War against Piracy

The Irish Commercial Court has ruled in favour of a body representing the top television and film studios to implement a High Court injunction, which will see internet service providers in Ireland block websites involved in piracy.

Eight piracy sites in particular have been earmarked by the court and will be blocked by internet service providers as the Irish film and telvision industry makes significant strides forward in its war on piracy.

This Motion Picture Association (MPA), which represents Sony Pictures, Disney, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, and Warner Bros., welcomed the decision by Mr. Justice Brian McGovern, who said that there was “significant public interest grounds” to grant the injunction sought by the film and television bodies.

Mr. Justice McGovern highlighted that there was sufficient evidence to prove that the eight websites in question had engaged in widespread copyright infringement with an investigation finding that the eight sites alone had a combined traffic of almost 6.5 million visits in the month of October (2017). As a result, Judge McGovern granted the injunction, which will see the following piracy websites blocked from Irish internet service providers:

• 1337x
• Eztv
• BMovies
• GoMovies
• Putlocker
• Rarbg
• WatchFree
• Yts

Proceedings were then brought against Irish network providers: Sky Ireland; Vodafone Ireland; Virgin Media Ireland; Eir; Three Ireland; Digiweb; Magnet Networks; and Imagine Telecommunications. The application was not opposed by any of the providers.

Commenting after the ruling, Stan McCoy, EMEA president and managing director of the MPA said:

“As the Irish film industry is continuing to thrive, the MPA is dedicated to supporting that growth by combating the operations of illegal sites that undermine the sustainability of the sector, 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.”

Long time activist against piracy, Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures said:

“This ruling is another important step in ensuring that those involved in the creation of film and TV content receive a fair return on their work. This benefits filmmakers and their audiences alike as a fair return on investment means that we can provide greater levels of choice and quality to film-lovers. Websites that freely distribute content without sharing any of the cost or risk of production damage our industry and put Irish jobs at risk.”

Most sites included in today’s ruling have already been blocked in a number of countries such as Norway, Denmark, Austria, and the UK.

However, this ruling marks a significant victory for the film and television sector, building on the momentum of last year’s court ruling to block popular streaming sites: PrimeWire.ag, OnWatchSeries.to, and Movies4k.to