Eight illegal pirate websites showing movies and TV shows have been blocked in Ireland

A ruling was made in Commercial Court on Monday.

Eight illegal pirate websites that facilitate the distribution of stolen film and television content to Irish consumers have been blocked after an injunction was taken against them in Commercial Court on Monday.

The ruling has been welcomed by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), whose members took a successful blocking action against three of the most visited pirate websites in Ireland last year.

Investigations into the prevalence of digital piracy in Ireland found that the eight websites targeted by the most recent blocking action, which included Putlocker and Gomovies domains, received a minimum estimated total of 6,334,215 visits (data supplied by Incopro Limited) that emanated from Ireland in October 2017 alone.

Most of the sites involved in the ruling have already been blocked in several other jurisdictions including the UK, Norway, Austria and Denmark.

The order was granted in respect of the following eight websites:

the website currently located at 1337x.io (the “1337x” website)

the website currently located at eztv.ag (the “Eztv” website)

the website currently located at bmovies.is (the “Bmovies” website)

the website currently located at 123movieshub.to (the “Gomovies” website)

the website currently located at putlocker.io (the “Putlocker.io” website)

the website currently located at rarbg.to (the “Rarbg”website)

the website currently located at gowatchfreemovies.to (the “Watchfree” website)

the website currently located at yts.am (the “Yts” website)

The companies involved in the action include Warner Bros. Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Disney, Universal Studios and Sony/Columbia Pictures. They were supported by independent distributors and filmmakers in Ireland.

Summonses were served on the following Internet Service Providers (ISPs): Eir, Sky Subscribers Services, Vodafone Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland, Three Ireland and Three Ireland Services, Digiweb, Imagine Telecommunications and Magnet Networks.

Mr Justice Brian McGovern granted the injunction against the pirate websites in Commercial Court on Monday, confirming that there was “a significant public interest in combatting copyright infringement”.

He said such activity had “a detrimental effect on the rights of creative artists”, that it interferes with their livelihood and interferes with other legitimate businesses that work with them.

The decision was welcomed by the MPA, with Stan McCoy, MPA EMEA President and Managing Director, saying that the ruling was another crucial step in ensuring that Irish consumers have access to completely safe and legal content and protecting the livelihoods of those working in the TV and film industries both in Ireland and around the world.

“As the Irish film industry is continuing to thrive, the MPA is dedicated to supporting that growth by combatting the operations of illegal sites that undermine the sustainability of the sector.

“Preventing these pirate sites from freely disturbing other people’s work will help us provide greater job security for the 18,000 people employed through the Irish film industry and ensure that consumers can continue to enjoy high quality content in the future.”