Following on from the orders for Australian ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay in December, Kickass Torrents will be blocked across Australia by the end of May under orders made by the Federal Court.

The orders came at the request of music labels Universal Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, collecting society Australasian Performing Right Association and others.

Twenty internet service providers, including TPG, Telstra and Optus have been given 15 days to take reasonable steps to block the sites.

Justice Burley was satisfied the primary purpose of the Kick Ass Torrent site “is to infringe or to facilitate the infringement of copyright”.

But how effective these orders will be remains to be seen as the multi-headed hydra of online piracy presents rights owners and ISPs with the challenge of playing whack-a-mole to make sure all domains offering infringing content are blocked (as seen in the case of The Pirate Bay).

Decision here.

Get in touch here.