Tightening the Screws on Pirate Websites through Dynamic Website Blocking Injunctions

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From Hugh Stephens Blog:

A pirate site is blocked through a court order yet like a chameleon it changes its colour (and IP address or URL) and is back up again tomorrow under a different guise. This is the reality that rights-holders have to face repeatedly in dealing with slippery pirate operators. But relief is coming.

In an important new development in India, the Delhi High Court recently issued a decision that allows rights-holders to seek “dynamic injunctions” against Indian ISPs. This requires them to block access to the spin-off “mirror” websites that typically appear as a result of the blocking of a primary offshore site that is providing copyright infringing content. Dynamic injunctions avoid the classic “whack-a-mole” problem where no sooner has a court issued an injunction against a specified website, than a clone hosted in some other unreachable jurisdiction pops up providing the same pirated content. Sometimes users seeking the original “free” content are even redirected to the mirror site. The Washington DC-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has prepared a detailed report of the Indian decision and its impact on India’s important film industry, focussing particularly on the dynamic injunction aspect.

According to the ITIF;

“Just as website blocking is a pragmatic reflection of a country’s efforts to use injunction orders to get local ISPs to block access to piracy websites hosted overseas (and outside its jurisdiction), dynamic injunctions reflect the fact these same operators can subvert a court’s decisions by shifting targeted piracy operations to alternative websites. The goal of using dynamic injunctions as part of a website blocking system is not just to combat online piracy, but also to change consumers’ behavior by raising the cost—in terms of time and willingness to find alternatives sites and circumvention tools—to make the legal sources of content more appealing.

Link to the rest at Hugh Stephens Blog

 

3 thoughts on “Tightening the Screws on Pirate Websites through Dynamic Website Blocking Injunctions”

  1. “The goal of using dynamic injunctions as part of a website blocking system is not just to combat online piracy, but also to change consumers’ behavior by raising the cost—in terms of time and willingness to find alternatives sites and circumvention tools—to make the legal sources of content more appealing.”

    Heaven forbid the rights holders have to consider that the less overpriced something is the lesser the need/want there is to find a better way to pirate it.

  2. A lot of copyright holders want entire countries blocked off from the US. Like India.

    This also puts the burden of investigation and punitive action on technical entities instead of law enforcement and the courts. Sounds like a budget saver, but really it makes the technical entities able to be judge, jury, and executioner. What a great idea!

    • “Sounds like a budget saver, but really it makes the technical entities able to be judge, jury, and executioner.”

      When you get right down to it, 99% of this is to not make anything right – but to gain control.

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