The landmark legal case was heard in the Commercial division of the High Court in Dublin where Mr Justice Brian Cregan granted the injunction against the pirate websites. The companies involved in this action included Warner Bros. Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Disney, Universal Studios and Sony/Columbia Pictures supported by independent distributors and filmmakers in Ireland, including Element Pictures, and the Irish Film Board.
Investigations
Investigations carried out for the legal action found the three target websites – Primewire, Watchseries and Movie4K domains – received respectively 1.26 million, 1.93 million and over 200,000 visits originating from Ireland in October 2016 alone. It is also estimated that piracy cost the Irish exchequer an estimated €71 million euro in 2015. Several ISPs - EIR, Sky Subscribers Services, Vodafone Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland, Three Ireland, Digiweb, Imagine Telecommunications and Magnet Networks - were served with summonses. Many of these ISPs are already working in co-operation with the MPA following similar action in the UK.
Protecting Ireland's film industry
Stan McCoy, MPA EMEA President and Managing Director, said: ‘Ireland has a fantastic film industry which provides thousands of jobs and it is important that we protect it from corrupt operators who profit by stealing and selling content illegally…Piracy is a borderless issue with pirate site operators often hosting their websites overseas in an attempt to shield themselves from the law…That’s why the creative community worldwide must work together to solve it.’ He went to say that the ruling would help protect Ireland’s thriving film industry. ‘Stopping theft and creating space for ever more legal offerings will help to cement the future of Ireland’s thriving film sector. This ruling is the first step towards that.’
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