The United States has just ordered the blocking of all illegal streaming sites. Following a complaint from rights holders, the American justice system has ruled that all ISPs are legally required to block platforms dedicated to the piracy of films and series.
Three American production companies, United King Film Distribution, DBS Satellite Services and Hot Communication, sued a lawsuit against illegal streaming sites Last year. The complaint essentially targeted three platforms for watching series and movies in streaming: Israel-tv.com, Israel.tv and Sdarot.tv. The rights holders claimed $150,000 in damages for each production posted online in violation of copyright.
According to information from our colleagues at Torrent Freak, the production companies have won their case. American justice demanded that the administrators of the three pinned pirate sites pay $7,650,000 in damages to rights holders. After months of proceedings, the courts found that the managers had infringed the copyright of 51 works.
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Justice demands that ISPs block illegal streaming
The case could make case law in the fight against illegal streaming, a billion dollar industry. In the judgment made public, the courts indeed considered that all American Internet service providers had the obligation to block the domain names used by pirates.
“All ISPs… and any other ISPs providing services in the United States will block access to the Website at any domain address known today… or to be used in the future by administrators… by any technological means available. ”, declares the American justice. The courts also released a list of all US ISPs that are legally required to block all domain names.
Justice specifies that this list is not exhaustive, which includes de facto all the suppliers of the country. “Domain addresses and any newly detected websites will be blocked so that users cannot log in and/or use the website”says the court’s verdict.
The judges add that ISPs, web hosts, advertising companies and any web player are forbidden to trade with pirate sites. In addition, the bank accounts of the administrators must imperatively be frozen. This is the first time that a US court has made such a strong decision against illegal streaming sites. It is likely that ISPs in the United States will challenge the court ruling in the near future.
Source : Torrent Freak
