With rulings across film, TV and music, the court is now likely to follow precedent in future actions.

Foxtel is concentrating on offending websites which are copyright infringing content which it clearly owns, such as the TV drama Wentworth.

Foxtel, the film studios and record labels are working together on a coordinated campaign to block pirating websites to make sure they're not targeting the same sites.

Foxtel chief executive Peter Tonagh said blocking piracy websites is just one part in protecting content owners rights.

"We don't think it's enough to just close the sites down. We'll also have education campaign. There's plenty of examples where these sites have viruses or credit card scams," he said.

Village co-chief executive Graham Burke said his company's action against 41 sites represents about 95 per cent of the movie trade.

"This is a seriously bad underbelly of thieves. People, I think, will realise that and hopefully do the right thing."

ARIA chief executive Dan Rosen said there is evidence, from the UK, which shows blocking a significant number of sites has an impact on piracy.


He said he is pleased the court order ISP to block a list of sites and is still working through the decision.

Mr Tonagh said there are sites advertising set-top boxes people can buy which allow consumers to illegally gain free access to Foxtel's content. The subscription TV business is moving to block those sites as well as stamping out set-top box piracy with new smartcards.

Finally, Foxtel is working closely with US-based companies Google and Facebook to prevent copyright infringement, such as when a Facebook user live streamed the boxing blockbuster between Anthony Mundine and Danny Green via Facebook Live.

"This is the one that in some ways is the most important to fix because it's more mainstream," Mr Tonagh said.

By providing both videos and live streams to Facebook, for example, those companies are using technology which scans the content given to them, searches out any streams that could potentially be copyright infringing and sending a note back to the content owner, such as Foxtel, to check if it is legitimate or not, and taking it down if not.

"Obviously we're reliant on social media platforms to pull this down ... equally we have technology to identify where the stream is coming from," Mr Tonagh said, noting that if it is coming from a Foxtel users they could cut their service.