British court orders ISPs to block stream-ripping sites

By Emmanuel Legrand

London’s High Court has ruled that the operators and users of websites who use the services of internet companies (ISPs) to infringe copyright should have their access blocked by the ISPs. Justice Miles at London’s High Court ruled that infringing uses included providing or linking to a downloadable stream-ripping app.

  The piracy cases, brought by British record labels association the BPI and neighbouring rights society PPL, on behalf of major and independent record companies, confirmed "for the first time that cyberlockers and stream rippers – and those who use them – break the law," according to the BPI.

  The BPI said it had been developing the cases for two years, with 3,000 pages of evidence. The cases were brought under section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 against the six Defendant ISPs – BT, EE, PlusNet, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media. The BPI said that after months of negotiations, the six ISPs agreed not to oppose the case and to comply with the Court’s decision.

Encouraging illegal sharing

  The cases were related to a cyberlocker Nitroflare and a number of stream ripping sites including two of the world’s biggest, Flvto and 2Conv, the former appearing in both the US Trade Representative's "Notorious Markets List" and the European Commission’s "Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List". 

  Together these sites attract over a billion visits a year worldwide, and tens of millions a year from the UK alone, according to the BPI, which added that the operators of the illegal stream ripping sites "make millions of pounds a year from advertising in the UK alone, but do not share a penny with the creators of the music they are exploiting."

  Justice Miles found that although music only represents around 10% of all files available on Nitroflare, the site warranted being blocked "because it actively encouraged illegal sharing and it was highly unlikely that the site was being used for legitimate storage on a significant scale," said the BPI.

Biggest piracy threat

  For the BPI, "stream ripping and cyberlockers are the music industry’s current biggest piracy threat" and the two judgments "are significant developments and benefit the whole music industry – artists, songwriters, music publishers and record companies large and small, as well as legitimate music streaming services.“

  "The High Court has confirmed what we all believed, namely that the operators and users of these egregious cyberlocker and stream ripping sites – together with the associated stream ripping app – infringe copyright in multiple ways and should be blocked in the UK," commented Kiaron Whitehead, General Counsel responsible for the UK litigation. 

  He added: "These two new judgments are important both legally and practically. They are not a silver bullet, but they develop existing European law and represent a significant step forwards in copyright law in the UK. We are grateful to the High Court in dealing with this group litigation so efficiently in an online hearing. The BPI will be taking further actions following these judgments.”

Grow the value of the legal market

  The BPI has called on Government to continue to do more to "help reduce piracy and to grow the value of the legal streaming market for the benefit of the whole industry."

  The BPI's recommendations include:

  1  – Introducing a "duty of care" for online platforms who use music in their business models;

  2 – Preventing such platforms misusing "safe harbour" provisions to underpay for the music they use;

  3 – Introducing a statutory damages regime in the UK to deter illegal sites; and

  4 – Introducing faster and more affordable ways for rights holders to obtain website blocking orders against illegal sites.  

  “This result is good news for artists and performers, and I am grateful to BPI for its defence of our country’s intellectual property laws," said Amanda Solloway, Minister for Intellectual Property. "These ‘stream ripping’ providers steal hundreds of millions of pounds which should be going to our world-renowned music industry. The Government will continue working closely with the music industry to combat piracy, protect jobs and maintain one of the strongest intellectual property frameworks in the world.”