An Australian court has been requested to order 50 ISPs to block access to foreign websites providing infringing copies of films.

The action is the first to be brought under the new s115A of the Copyright Act, which provides that a copyright owner may apply to the Federal Court for an injunction requiring ISPs to block access to a foreign online location, the primary purpose of which is to infringe, or facilitate the infringement of, copyright (whether or not in Australia).

The Statement of Claim shows that the action has been brought by eight copyright owners – including Village Roadshow, Disney and Warner – in respect the website solarmovie.ph and three related locations, all of which are based in Canada and Latvia.

According to the Application, the copyright owners seek orders that the ISPs take reasonable steps to disable access to these locations, by means of DNS blocking, IP address blocking, URL blocking or any alternative technical means agreed by the parties.