Here Are 17 More ‘Pirate’ Sites Foxtel Is Banning In Australia

Foxtel’s legal crusade against online piracy has intensified, with the company applying to add 127 additional URLs to its proposed block list in Federal Court. The new sites under the ban hammer include YesMovies, Vumoo, LosMovies, CartoonHD, Project Free TV 1, Torlock and 1337x. Here is the full list.

As reported on Computer World, Foxtel is stepping up its attacks on so-called pirate sites in a bid to prevent internet users from accessing content it holds the rights to. This includes the HBO series Game Of Thrones, which Australians are notorious for downloading illegally.

In December last year, Foxtel and Village Roadshow successfully blocked five popular torrent websites through the courts. The five sites on the ban list were The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and SolarMovie.

Foxtel’s latest application names the following websites:

YesMovies Vumoo LosMovies CartoonHD Putlocker Watch Series 1 Watch Series 2 Project Free TV 1 Project Free TV 2 Watch Episodes Watch Episode Series Watch TV Series The Dare Telly Putlocker9.is Putlocker9.to Torlock 1337x.

As before, Foxtel has also named multiple URLs for the sites it is seeking to block for a grand total of 127. (In other words, a simple suffix change will not be enough to circumvent the ban.)

The court will now assess the evidence in Foxtel’s application to determine what action should be taken. Given the success of Foxtel’s previous applications, we would be extremely surprised if an injunction was not handed down on all of the aforementioned sites. As before, internet service providers (ISPs) will have 15 days to implement the blocks.

Why I Refuse To Feel Guilty For Torrenting Game Of Thrones One year ago my brother in-law and I made a decision. We wanted to do the right thing. We wanted to try and pay to watch Game of Thrones season 5. Analyse that sentence for a second. I’ll add some italics for emphasis. “We wanted to try and pay to watch Game of Thrones.” Read more

In its original court application, Foxtel explained the reason for filing legal action as follows:

“A significant factor in Foxtel’s ability to attract subscribers is the exclusivity in Australia of a proportion of the programming it offers, including the Programs, the Australian premieres of which were exclusive to Foxtel’s subscription television services. “Foxtel’s programs have been, and continue to be, available without charge outside Foxtel’s subscription packages, and Foxtel has thereby suffered and will suffer loss and damage, including lost subscription fees, lost opportunity to earn subscription fees, lost opportunity to earn licensing fees, and other damage from loss of control over copyright in episodes of the Programs. “The reason for the primary purpose of The Pirate Bay [et al] is to infringe or facilitate the infringement of copyright (whether or not in Australia.) ..[These sites] had and have the power to prevent the infringements by Internet Users [and] have chosen not to take any or any sufficient steps to prevent such infringements or continuing infringements.”

The latest injunction application comes a month after the Federal Court ordered Australian ISPs to block access to Kickass Torrents websites at the behest of a consortium of music labels.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, the act of torrenting is completely legal and it’s not all that difficult to circumvent ISP blocking of torrent websites. Here are some ways to gain access to blocked torrent sites for free.

[Via Computerworld]