Courts to have power to block piracy websites

The Government has announced that it intends to introduce legislation to enable courts to order the blocking of overseas hosted websites that can be shown to be primarily for the purpose of facilitating online copyright infringement.  However, it is possible that this may be circumvented if a piracy website sets up under a new URL.

The Government has also announced that it expects rights holders and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to come to agreement on an industry code regarding online copyright infringement.  The Government has given industry players until 8 April 2015 to reach agreement or it has said that it will impose binding arrangements on the parties.  How the cost of copyright prevention measures will be shared will certainly be controversial.