Website blocking has become a hot topic in the last couple of years and now makes the headlines every couple of weeks and oftentimes more regularly than that.
On top of many previous ventures, just this week the MPA achieved a fresh set of blocks in the UK to black out SolarMovie and TubePlus, a pair of movie streaming portals that have been growing in popularity for some time. The recent action only adds to a long list of sites currently blocked in the country on copyright grounds.
But while concerted UK action is a fairly recent development, another country not too far away has been getting in on the web censorship action for some time. In addition to wiping out at least 20 gambling-related sites, during 2006/7 legal action in Denmark resulted in the blocking of two famous MP3 download sites, Russia-based AllofMP3 and MP3Sparks. In 2008, then key domain of The Pirate Bay, thepiratebay.org, was added to the list.
After a break of four years, in 2012 three more domains were censored on copyright grounds – thepiratebay.se, homelifespain.com and streaming music service GrooveShark.com. And now a year later, rightsholders have returned once again.
Court documents reveal that Fox-Paramount, Sony Music, Disney, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and several local companies went to court to have ISP Telia block four of the most popular movie and TV show sites in the region – Movie4K.to, PrimeWire.ag, Swefilmer.com and Dreamfilm.se. The Copenhagen City Court granted the request.
“The four sites are the most popular among users, and the sites each offer thousands of movies without paying money back to the people who have invested in the films. Prime Wire for example offers around 55,000 movies,” anti-piracy group Rights Alliance said in a statement.
“It is a problem for filmmakers because they miss out on the revenue needed if they are to make new films in the future. Instead the money is flowing to the people behind the illegal movie sites. These activities are illegal and web blocking helps us to stop them.”
The anti-piracy group says that while some of the sites offered to remove infringing links, attempts at giving them the opportunity to defend themselves failed.
“We have tried to give the organizers behind the sites a chance to meet up and argue their case by sending information via their domain name registrations but none have thus made themselves known,” Rights Alliance said.
What is interesting about these new Danish blocks is that unlike in the UK where users are simply advised that a page has been banned, local ISPs display a banner which directs users to ShareWithCare.dk, a site that offers links to legal content. It is operated by Johan Schlüter Advokatfirma, the law firm acting on behalf of the plaintiffs in the blocking case.
Meanwhile in Norway this week, an anti-piracy group confirmed they are taking the next steps to having sites in the country blocked on copyright grounds. Unsurprisingly The Pirate Bay is on the top of the list.
“We have been preparing the process for a couple of months, and we anticipate that we will shortly be in talks with several Internet service providers in Norway to block illegal sites. First and foremost we will go after The Pirate Bay,” said Willy Johansen, Secretary General of the Norwegian Videograms Association.
Those talks are expected to get underway early December but although a new law in Norway does allow the blocking of sites, according to lawyer Olav Torvund, the threshold remains fairly high.
“First, you have to prove that there are violations of copyright on a large-scale, then the court must weigh up whether to shut down access to freedom and freedom of information,” Torvund said.
