Ireland
[IE] Further Copyright Blocking Injunctions Granted
IRIS 2014-2:1/24
Damien McCallig
School of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway
On 2 December 2013, the Irish High Court granted an injunction requiring five Internet service providers (UPC, Vodafone, Digiweb, Hutchinson 3G and Telefonica) to block access to Kickass Torrents (Kat), a popular file-sharing site used by Internet users to download music and movie files. This is the second time an injunction has been granted under the controversial copyright injunction law that was introduced in February 2012 (see IRIS 2012-4/31 and IRIS 2013-10/29).
None of the Internet service providers (ISPs) objected to the blocking injunction being granted. A number of other ISPs including Eircom, Meteor, Magnet, Sky and Imagine Telecommunications are reported, in the media, to have indicated that they were prepared to voluntarily block access to Kickass Torrents provided that the court made a blocking order to that effect, against any other ISP. The orders were sought by the Irish subsidiaries of music companies Sony, Universal and Warner.
References
- Carolan M., “Music firms entitled to orders to require internet providers to block music site”, Irish Times, 3 December 2013
- http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/music-firms-entitled-to-orders-to-require-internet-providers-to-block-music-site-1.1614915
- Healy T., “Internet firms ordered to block file-share sites”, Irish Independent, 3 December 2013
- http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/internet-firms-ordered-to-block-fileshare-sites-29803417.html
Related articles
IRIS 2012-4:1/31 [IE] Copyright Injunctions Law Introduced
IRIS 2013-10:1/29 [IE] Pirate Bay Blocked and Three-Strikes Protocol Continues
This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.