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Applications for injunctions filed at Federal Court are usually headed by local movie company Village Roadshow, with the main beneficiaries the major Hollywood studios, Netflix, and more recently, Apple.
This familiar format was evident again in a March application which requested ISP blocking measures against around three dozen pirate sites.
The Australian system is thorough but hasn’t always displayed the type of responsiveness needed to tackle a constantly shifting pirate marketplace.
More recently, however, the time between application and blocking injunction has contracted. In this case the time between rightsholders filing a statement of claim/originating application and obtaining an injunction was less than two months.
Justice Halley’s order dated May 8, 2024, was handed down Wednesday.
The full list of sites targeted, their domains and IP addresses, can be found at the end of this article. The summary reads as follows:
0gomovies.ws, watchseries1.video, 0gomovies.com.pk, 123series.art, abcproxy.org, cataz.to, emovies.si, ev01.sx, flixhd.cc, fmovies.style, gimy.ai, m4ufree.vip, moviehdkh.com, moviekhhd.biz, movies.do, musichq.pe, projectfreetv.cyou, projectfreetv.ru, rarbg.tw, serieshd.watch, soap2day-online.com, soap2day.tel, soap2dayto.io, thekickasstorrents.com, thekickasstorrents.to, thekisscartoon.com, uflix.cc, putlockersgo.net, watch4freemovies.com, watchseries1.stream, thesoap2day.com, animesuge.cc, putlocker.onl, m4ufree.site, m4ufree.to, watchseries.click, www15.4movierulz.to, ymovies.cc
The list of domains has plenty of recognizable brands but the fact they’ve appeared in a court order at all suggests they’re imposter sites with no connections or no provable connections to their previously-blocked namesakes. Australia’s blocking is carried out on a dynamic basis, meaning that a site can still be blocked regardless of domain or brand identity changes.
Blocking in Australia Marketed as a Success
After the MPA recently announced that it’s working with Congress to introduce site-blocking legislation in the United States, attention will inevitably turn to other countries where blocking has shown good results. Likely candidates include Australia, United Kingdom, and Portugal.
Whether site-blocking has been effective in Australia (or indeed anywhere else in the world) mostly finds answers in studies carried out on behalf of the MPA. We’ve reported on almost all of them and while the research itself doesn’t raise immediate concerns, some subsequently reported conclusions are difficult to square, not just with the position on the ground, but with the scale of subsequent blocking activity.
MPA report to Congress in 2023: The evidence shows that site blocking is effective both in reducing traffic to pirate websites and increasing the use of legitimate services. A site-blocking order applicable to the main access providers in a given country effectively reduces traffic to the targeted piracy domains in the period after blocking is implemented. For example, blocking 53 piracy websites in the United Kingdom caused an 88% drop in visits to the blocked sites and an 80% to 95% drop across user groups in other waves. Additionally, analysis in Australia, Portugal, and South Korea found average drops in visits to blocked sites of between 60 and 90% (pdf).
Of course, when the domains of pirate websites are suddenly blocked by a country’s main ISPs, a significant drop in traffic to the domains that have been blocked is the inevitable outcome. The reality is that when domains are blocked, pirate sites know instantly, and since it takes minutes or even seconds to switch to a replacement domain or subdomain, the effectiveness of blocking finds itself immediately undermined.
That being said, there is credible evidence to show that users affected by a blocking wave in Australia “increased consumption of content on legal viewing sites in the post-period following the blocking by 5%.” That 5% is not insignificant but the uplift refers to a traffic measurement, not an increase in subscription uptake.
More Blocking is Always Needed
Australia doesn’t publish an official blocklist so again, figures produced by those requesting the blocking is the only information readily available. What we can say with some certainty is that in early 2023, 2,000 domains had been subjected to blocking orders by the Federal Court.
To that background, a study carried out by the MPA found that there were 1.8 billion visits to pirate sites from Australian IP addresses in 2022, up 10% on similar research a year earlier.
Another claim from last year by Creative Content Australia stated the following: 6.3 million Australians aged 13+ have experienced a cybersecurity issue while pirating with 82% of teens and 72% of adults falling victim to fraud, malware or identity theft
Taken at face value, that sounds like eight in every ten teenagers aren’t finding blocking particularly effective.
In the UK, another country likely to be held up as an example of what blocking looks like when done properly, a conservative 10,000 domains have been blocked and piracy rates have remained static for years.
So for now, the sites listed below will soon be placed on Australia’s blacklist. Tests today reveal that some may have disappeared. Others already have new domains.
Blocking may still have some benefits but, in general, it just doesn’t really look like it.
The latest blocking order is available here (pdf)
| No. | Target Online Location | Target Domain Names | Target URLs | Target IP Addresses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | gimy | gimy.ai |
Gimy 劇迷 - 高清追劇首選Gimy 劇迷線上看，追劇線上看推薦首選，隨選隨看輕鬆追上最新影劇內容 ! Gimy 涵蓋電影、電視劇、動漫、綜藝、陸劇、韓劇、美劇、台劇、日劇、BL、泰劇、紀錄片等。
gimy.ai
| 104.21.40.112 172.67.185.135 |
| 2 | m4ufree.to | m4ufree.to | 104.21.15.7 172.67.160.249 | |
| 3 | m4uFree.site | m4ufree.site | 104.21.63.60 172.67.143.222 | |
| 4 | cataz | cataz.to |
Cataz.net - Watch free movies online and Stream all Tv Shows in HD FreeFull Movies Online Streaming and Tv Shows Streaming At no cost - Fast and Free with Great support on many devices
cataz.to
| 104.21.22.109 172.67.204.100 |
| 5 | 0gomovies.ws | 0gomovies.com.pk |
0Gomovies - Movies Watch Online0gomovies Watch Movies Online ogomovies, only on 0go movies App Super Fast Streaming in HD Quality new Films,0gomovie is Best website To Watch Indian And English Subbed 0go movies
0gomovies.com.pk
| 104.21.46.106 172.67.137.198 |
| 0gomovies.ws | 104.31.16.8 104.31.16.121 | |||
| 6 | soap2day-online.com | soap2day-online.com |
Soap2day - Watch Free Movies & TV Shows Online - Soap 2 day, Soaptoday.Soap2Day - watch The latest 2024 movies online, TV shows are waiting for you on Soap2day site, carefully selected especially for you. Plunge headfirst into the world of cinema with Soap2Day and enjoy for free the most complete collection of materials in HD quality without registration.
soap2day-online.com
| 104.31.16.8 104.31.16.121 |
| soap2dayto.io |
Soap2day - Watch Free Movies & TV Shows Online - Soap 2 day, Soaptoday.Soap2Day - watch The latest 2024 movies online, TV shows are waiting for you on Soap2day site, carefully selected especially for you. Plunge headfirst into the world of cinema with Soap2Day and enjoy for free the most complete collection of materials in HD quality without registration.
soap2dayto.io
| 104.21.28.74 172.67.144.186 | ||
| 7 | thesoap2day | thesoap2day.com | 172.67.167.175 104.21.41.224 | |
| 8 | soap2day.tel | soap2day.tel | 104.31.16.2 104.31.16.127 | |
| 9 | watch4freemovies | watch4freemovies.com |
Streaming Movies online Free with Watch4FreeMovies.comFree Streaming movies in HD and Watch Tv Shows Online For Free
watch4freemovies.com
| 104.21.78.254 172.67.139.55 |
| 10 | putlockersgo | putlockersgo.net | 104.31.16.10 104.31.16.119 | |
| 11 | putlocker.onl | putlocker.onl | 104.21.3.202 172.67.131.42 | |
| 12 | watchseriesclick | watchseries.click | 104.21.33.87 172.67.160.181 | |
| 13 | fmovies.style | fmovies.style |
Watch Free Online Movies - 1080/720p Stream | FmoviesWatch newest Movies & TV-Shows Online without ADs & in Best Quality - All Genresâ, All Yearsâ
| 104.31.16.127 104.31.16.2 |
| 14 | projectfreetv | projectfreetv.cyou | 172.67.199.203 104.21.21.184 | |
| 15 | ev01 | ev01.sx | 104.21.28.9 172.67.170.34 | |
| 16 | serieshd | serieshd.watch | 172.67.168.179 104.21.79.21 | |
| 17 | musichq | musichq.pe | 104.21.87.45 172.67.141.126 | |
| 18 | moviehdkh | moviehdkh.com | 104.21.25.228 172.67.134.218 | |
| 19 | 123series | 123series.art |
123Series | Watch Free Movies onlineFree streaming HD of over 250000 movies and tv shows in our database. No registration, no payment, 100% Free full hd streaming with Free Download
123series.art
| 104.31.16.124 104.31.16.5 |
| 20 | flixhd | flixhd.cc |
FlixHD - Watch Movies Online HD Free Streaming | Free HD TV Series Watch OnlineWatch over 400,000 HD Movies online Free and Stream all full HD Series - No Buffering - No Account Required - No Ads
flixhd.cc
| 104.21.24.139 172.67.218.248 |
| 21 | Movies Portal | movies.do | 104.26.10.107 104.26.11.107 172.67.70.103 | |
| 22 | project-free tv | projectfreetv.ru |
Watch Movies Online FreeWatch movies online - Download Free Movies, Stream, Trailers and Cinema Films.
| 104.21.47.237 172.67.174.125 |
| 23 | emovies | emovies.si |
eMovies - Watch Movies Online FreeeMovies - Free Movies. Watch Movies Online free, in high quality. You also can download any movie and series without registration. Watch latest movies in HD for free, free movies streaming online, most 2020
emovies.si
| 104.21.90.34 172.67.193.201 |
| 24 | moviekhhd | moviekhhd.biz | 104.21.1.9 172.67.151.185 | |
| 25 | uflix | uflix.cc |
Watch Movies Online and Watch Series Online FREE - uFlixWatch and Download Full Movies Online for FREE and Download Tv Series Online in HD on uFlix Official website
uflix.cc
| 104.21.54.193 172.67.141.88 |
| 26 | watchseries1 | watchseries1.stream | 172.67.158.50 104.21.90.165 | |
| watchseries1.video | 104.21.76.152 172.67.196.67 | |||
| 27 | suge anime/animesuge | animesuge.cc | 104.21.62.159 172.67.137.19 | |
| 28 | thekisscartoon.com | thekisscartoon.com |
Watch Cartoons Online For Free The Kisscartoon - Kimcartoonwatch cartoons online free in HD quality kisscartoon - kimcartoon. Watch cartoon online free unlimited at thekisscartoon website.
thekisscartoon.com
| 104.21.9.147 172.67.160.47 |
| 29 | m4ufree | m4ufree.vip |
Watch Free Full Movies Online | M4ufree | M4ufree.funM4ufree movies, m4ufree.fun, m4u free movies. Watch Movies Online Free. Watch all your favorite movies and tv shows online for free on M4ufree . All the movies and TV shows that were ever made. We always update Movie and TVshow to the latest!
| 104.21.66.7 172.67.154.119 |
| 30 | ymovies | ymovies.cc |
Ymovies - Watch TV Shows Online Free | Watch Movies OnlineYmovies free TV Series and stream TV show, find your favorite movies online for free, HD quality.
ymovies.cc
| 104.21.35.105 172.67.217.186 |
| 31 | abc proxy | abcproxy.org | 104.21.81.24 172.67.156.117 | |
| 32 | thekickasstorrentsproxy | thekickasstorrents.to |
Kickass - KAT - Kickasstorrents - Site StatusKickass - KAT - Kickasstorrents - Site Status and Official Mirrors List
| 104.21.72.91 172.67.179.117 |
| thekickasstorrents.com |
Kickass - KAT - Kickasstorrents - Site StatusKickass - KAT - Kickasstorrents - Site Status and Official Mirrors List
| 104.21.33.40 172.67.158.149 | ||
| 33 | rarbg portal | rarbg.tw |
RARBG.to Official - RARBG Proxy And Mirrors SitesRARBG.to Official - Download Torrents, movies, download, music, games on Rarbg. RARBG Proxy And Mirrors Sites
rarbg.tw
| 104.21.35.93 172.67.217.12 |
| 34 | 4movierulz.to | 4movierulz.to |
4Movierulz | Watch Bollywood and Hollywood Movies Online Free4Movierulz - Watch Bollywood and Hollywood Movies Online Free. Collection Of 4 Movierulz Telugu Movies Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada And Hindi Dubbed South Indian Movies. MovieRulz4
| 104.21.12.35 172.67.193.162 |
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.