NICHOLAS J:
1 Before me is an application under s 115A of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) ("the Act"). The orders sought by the applicants are in almost identical to those made in Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v Telstra Corporation Ltd (2016) 248 FCR 178 ("Roadshow") except, of course, that they relate to different online locations.
2 There are 51 respondents in all, each of which is a carriage service provider, and a member of the Telstra, Optus, Vocus (formerly M2), TGP or Vodafone groups. The First to Thirteenth, Fiftieth and Fifty-Second Respondents have not sought to be heard in the proceeding and submitting appearances have been filed on their behalf. The Fourteenth to Forty-Ninth Respondents did not appear.
3 The applicants allege that the relevant websites are online locations situated outside Australia and that they infringe, or facilitate the infringement of, copyright in large numbers of cinematograph films including motion pictures and television programs the copyright in which is owned by the applicants.
4 None of the operators of the relevant websites applied to be joined as a party to either proceeding and none sought to appear at the hearing. There was affidavit evidence in the proceeding given by solicitors acting for the applicants describing attempts to notify the persons who operate each of the relevant websites. In light of that evidence I am satisfied that the applicants have made reasonable efforts to determine the identity and address of the persons who operate the relevant websites, and to send notices to those persons.
5 The affidavit evidence relied upon by the applicants consists of affidavits made by Nicholas Vincent Kraegan, Andrew Gavin Stewart, Gregory Donald Fraser and Joel Robert Vagnoni.
6 Mr Stewart and Mr Kraegen are solicitors with Baker & McKenzie who act for the applicants. Mr Stewart's evidence identifies certain cinematograph films in which copyright is owned by one of the applicants. I do not propose to list the cinematograph films referred to in Mr Stewart's evidence but they are all commercially released motion pictures some of which are very well known. Mr Kraegen's affidavits refer to the efforts made by the applicants' solicitors to notify the persons who operate the target online locations of the proceeding.
7 Mr Fraser is the Content Protection Investigations Manager Australia/New Zealand for the Motion Picture Association of America. Mr Vagnoni is the business and legal affairs executive for Madman Entertainment Pty Ltd, an entity related to the ninth applicant ("Madman"). Mr Fraser and Mr Vagnoni gave evidence regarding their investigations into each of the target online locations, including the nature of the copyright material accessible at or via (ie. by hyperlinks) those locations and the contact information for their owners/operators (such as it was) that was provided at those locations.
8 "Anime" is a term that refers typically and broadly to animated audio-visual content from Japan, or audio-visual content in a particular animation style which is typically associated with Japanese animation. Madman is a theatrical, home entertainment distribution and rights management company, specialising in the wholesale distribution of Anime DVD and BLU RAY products into sales channels throughout Australia and New Zealand. Madman also owns and operates in Australia and New Zealand an online streaming service called "Animelab", which is available at the website accessible at the domain name animelab.com. AnimeLab provides access to "Anime" content in respect of which Madman holds licences from various copyright owners and rightsholders, authorising Madman to make copyright material available in that way.
9 Various amendments were made to s 115A by the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Act 2018 (Cth) which took effect on 11 December 2018. Section 115A(1)-(2A) of the Act now provides:
115A Injunctions relating to online locations outside Australia
Application for an injunction
(1) The owner of a copyright may apply to the Federal Court of Australia to grant an injunction that requires a carriage service provider to take such steps as the Court considers reasonable to disable access to an online location outside Australia that:
(a) infringes, or facilitates an infringement, of the copyright; and
(b) has the primary purpose or the primary effect of infringing, or facilitating an infringement, of copyright (whether or not in Australia).
(2) The application under subsection (1) may also request that the injunction require an online search engine provider (other than a provider that is covered by a declaration under subsection (8B)) to take such steps as the Court considers reasonable so as not to provide a search result that refers users to the online location.
Granting the injunction
(2A) The Court may grant the injunction in the terms, and subject to the conditions, that the Court considers appropriate.
Note 1: For the matters that the Court may take into account when determining whether to grant the injunction, see subsection (5).
Note 2: The terms and conditions of the injunction that apply to a carriage service provider under subsection (1) may be different from those that apply to an online search engine provider under subsection (2).
(2B) Without limiting subsection (2A), the injunction may:
(a) require the carriage service provider to take reasonable steps to do either or both of the following:
(i) block domain names, URLs and IP addresses that provide access to the online location and that are specified in the injunction;
(ii) block domain names, URLs and IP addresses that the carriage service provider and the owner of the copyright agree, in writing, have started to provide access to the online location after the injunction is made; and
(b) require the online search engine provider to take reasonable steps to do either or both of the following:
(i) not provide search results that include domain names, URLs and IP addresses that provide access to the online location and that are specified in the injunction;
(ii) not provide search results that include domain names, URLs and IP addresses that the online search engine provider and the owner of the copyright agree, in writing, have started to provide access to the online location after the injunction is made.
10 Subsection (1) now refers to "the primary purpose or the primary effect". More significantly, subsection (2) now permits the applicant to apply for an injunction requiring an online search engine provider to take steps not to provide a search result that refers to the online location. One purpose of this amendment is to prevent persons using a search engine to find additional domain names or URLs at which an online location that is the subject of an order under s 115A may be accessed. The applicants do not seek any such orders in this proceeding.
11 Subsection (2B) expressly permits the court to grant an injunction under subsection (2A) requiring the carriage service provider to block domain names, URLs and IP addresses that the carriage service provider and the owner of the copyright agree have started to provide access to the online location after the injunction is granted. However, this procedure is only available where it is provided for under the terms of the injunction granted by the court. In the present case the injunction sought by the applicants does not make any such provision.
12 Another change to s 115A involves the creation of a presumption in accordance with the new subsection (5A). It provides that, for the purpose of the proceedings, the online location is presumed to be outside Australia, unless the contrary is established. This change is likely to reduce the difficulty and cost of establishing that an online location is located outside Australia, as required by subsection (1).
13 Turning to the present case, I find that each of the target online locations identified in the applicants' proposed orders infringes or facilitates the infringement of the copyright of the applicants in various well-known cinematograph films. I also find that the target online locations have the primary purpose, or the primary effect, of infringing or facilitating an infringement of copyright in large numbers of commercially released cinematograph films many of which are very well-known. These include, in the case of the websites with which Madman is most concerned, television programs and films in respect of which it is the exclusive licensee for Australia including Dagashi Kashi, Shonen Maid and Dragon Ball.
14 Having considered the matters listed in s 115A(5), I am satisfied that a blocking order should be made in the terms sought by the applicants against each of the respondents in respect of each of the target online locations.
15 The only operator of a target online location who argued against the making of an order in relation to an online location was Dr Socrates Dimitriadis. Dr Dimitriadis did not appear but he did forward to the Court correspondence dated 11 February 2019 and 14 May 2019. According to his correspondence, Dr Dimitriadis is the owner of the Greek-Movies.com website and an assistant professor of computer science at the George Mason University in the USA.
16 According to Dr Dimitriadis his website does not infringe copyright and does not facilitate the infringement of copyright. He states in this correspondence that there have been a number of judgments given in European courts in which "this has been proven multiple times". Copies of certified translations of at least some of those decisions are included in the evidence.
17 The evidence indicates that Dr Dimitriadis' website includes a page that refers to "Terms of Use" for the website. These include:
Greek-Movies is a search and indexing service for special content. It searches, collects, classifies and publishes URLs that refer to third-party public websites that legally host and broadcast audiovisual works. These videos are neither hosted nor projected by Greek-Movies themselves. At the moment you select any link from the Greek-Movies index, you are automatically transferred or logged in to these third-party services. This is true even if a third-party site is embedded on Greek-Movies websites.
Greek-Movies contains links (links) to third-party sites. Referring to links belonging to third-party websites is not an adoption of their views and actions, or the acceptance or support of the content they express, publish or postpone. The third parties - the operators of the websites responsible for the law - are solely responsible for the content of their websites or for any damage that may result from their use when the user / visitor of Greek-Movies goes to them. Greek-Movies is not responsible for the content of the web pages it indexes, nor can, or has the right or the obligation to know, the terms by which these third-party websites publish their content.
Greek-Movies provides its own index and does not bear any responsibility or obligation for the proper and uninterrupted operation of the third-party websites it indexes. Greek-Movies reserves the right to add, remove, or alter any third-party internet address from its index at any time and without any notice.
Greek-Movies does not sell, rent or otherwise exploit the content of the web pages it indexes. Their exploitation is subject to sole control of these websites. Greek-Movies is a service provided free of charge and maintained by advertisements that it views on its own websites alone.
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18 In his correspondence of 11 February 2019 Dr Dimitriadis states:
1. My site does not host, or publish in any other form, any kind of copyright material whatsoever. My site is just a search engine that refers users to third-party websites.
2. Greek-Movies.com operates for 13 years now, and it has always abided by the law. Although there were similar false accusations in the past, by companies that are much bigger than the applicants in this case, none of them has ever been substantiated in any court.
3. In four different cases … that were tried in Europe, all courts have made the same judgement, that the allegations against Greek-Movies are completely false, and confirmed that the site complies with the law.
4. Greek-Movies has absolutely no relation with any of the other sites that are listed as "Target Online Locations". Just the fact that most of them are using Cloudfare Inc. which is a content delivery network, whereas my site is using Hetzner GmbH which is a regular web hosting service, clearly shows that, a) Greek-Movies is doing something very different from the other sites, and b) Greek-Movies doesn't have the required resources of a content delivery network in order to serve copyright material over the internet.
19 I have taken the opportunity to visit and explore the Greek-Movies.com website using a computer supplied by the applicants.
20 Dr Dimitriadis' website includes an extensive and searchable catalogue of audio visual content which can be directly accessed for streaming or downloading using links on the website. The catalogue includes many popular commercially released cinematograph films the dialogue for which is dubbed in Greek. These include:
The Lego Movie Despicable Me 3 Shrek
Toy Story 2 Shark Tale Paddington
Cinderella Happy Feet Happy Feet 2
Cars 2 Moana Winnie the Pooh
The Simpsons Movie Stuart Little Hotel Transylvania
Lion King II Alice Through the Looking Glass The Cat in the Hat
Wall E Frozen Ice Age 2
Smurfs: The Lost Village Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 101 Dalmations
The Incredibles The Incredibles 2 Chicken Run
Up Kung Fu Panda Kung Fu Panda 2