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A BODY REPRESENTING some of the worlds biggest TV and movie studios has secured a High Court injunction blocking several websites it says were illegally streaming films and television shows.
The injunction was granted at the commercial court today Mr Justice Brian McGovern who said he was satisfied that the websites in question had engaged in widespread infringement of the TV and movies studio’s copyright.
The were “significant public interest grounds” to grant the orders sought, the judge said.
The orders, under the 2000 Copyright and Related Act, were sought by the Motion Pictures Association, which represents Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Columbia and Sony Pictures, who claim the sites were breaching their copyright.
Their proceedings were brought against Ireland’s main Internet Service Providers (ISPs): Eircom, Sky Ireland, Vodafone Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland, Three Ireland, Digiweb, Imagine Telecommunications and Magnet Networks.
None of the ISP’s opposed the application.
The group had sought the orders on grounds including that up to 1.5 million users in Ireland may be involved in illegally accessing their films on one of the websites.
The websites blocked include GoMovies located at 123movieshub.to, Rarbg located at rarbg.to, EZTV located at extv.ag, and Watchfree currently located gowatchfreemovies.to.
Some of the websites streamed movies via the internet and have been providing users with an extensive library of unauthorised copies of content.
The other websites distributed movies and films through the internet used via peer to peer file sharing.
Jonathan Newman SC for the group said its members represent 80% of the worlds box office takings in Ireland and the UK in 2018.
The sites had offered for viewing many movies and programmes which were the copyright of his client’s members.
Counsel said the association was concerned because the sites had “very substantial numbers” of users in Ireland. Movies and programmes on one of the sites had been viewed between 1.5m and 1.3m times, counsel said.
Counsel said that those behind the websites had hidden anything to do with their identities or their physical location.
Correspondence was sent from the associations lawyers to the sites, via email, concerning the copyright infringements, but no responses had been received, counsel said.
Counsel said similar orders have been granted by the Irish courts in relation to other sites that had been involved in such activities.
Counsel said such orders have proven to be effective in other jurisdictions and there was clear evidence the orders sought are “dissuasive, effective and proportional” in countering copyright infringement.
Mr Justice McGovern, after admitting the matter to the fast track commercial court list, granted orders requiring the ISPs to block or disable access by subscribers to a number of websites.
The Judge said there was a significant public interest in granting the orders.
This was to protect the livelihoods of those whose copyright was being infringed, and the safeguard the business of companies involved in the legitimate distribution of such material, the Judge added.
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What a mess.
This is one Test the Government have Failed..!!
Some courses would have been subject to grade inflation due to some students getting higher marks due the addition of the CPSE mark. Some students were initially marked down and now have been awarded higher marks will still not get their courses due to this.
They need to publish what the CAO points should have been for each course had this error not occurred.
Students missing out because of others incorrectly receiving inflated grades will then have clarity around whether they should have received a first round offer on their preferred course at a minimum.
It’s the very least they deserve at this stage.
This should be easy to do, and we should not be hiding this from the students. It would be purely in the interest of fairness.
Happy news but how many have lost their place in Universities or places of learning outside the Republic of Ireland
Government to blame, orange man bad to blame, schools to blame, testers to blame.. Any chance anyone will ever blame China??? Unbelievable how they have been given a free pass by the MSM and the lefties.
@Crispy Brown: people will never blame China because there are afraid of the what the Chinese could do. That’s if they haven’t done it already.
@Crispy Brown: What has China got to do with a failed Leaving Cert calculation of grades system? Lol?
@Crispy Brown: get a life Crispy
Can we please offer most courses online and allow more students enrol. “Live” lectures are over rated.
Since the same (faulty) criteria was passed on everybody, why is it a problem? The entire solution was a compromise.
@Niall:
Agree!
Credit where credit is due, Norma has now fully redeemed herself by overseeing speedy resolution to problems caused by coding errors in grading system.
And Govt has promised that no student will lose out on their first choice college course, so a plan must be getting hatched to address any capacity issues in colleges. Like for example, offering courses online. Doh! How big a deal is that during a pandemic using modern tech, when, already, many sectors of the economy are actively embracing remote working.
It’s hard to listen to ongoing squeals from College suits that there is no space, that lecture halls on some courses are choc a bloc.
Someone explain to them that there’s no extra work required, just income generation & capex saving opps by offering lectures online.
A’s for everyone.
@Full Circle: “A” for the Asses who messed it up. Too many Teachers in the Dáil who essentially haven’t learnt their lessons or done their homework. Dianna Fáil should stop parachuting Novices into positions way above their capacity.
Did anyone get downgraded?
@John Smith: No. Higher grade however awarded will be the grade you keep.
@John Smith: Think I read that no one will be downgraded. Could be wrong but almost certain.
@John Smith: “Did anyone get downgraded?”
– I wonder what this means:
“Foley stressed that no students would receive a lower grade from the review”
– maybe it was added after you read the article.
Why didn’t they finish testing the code and the results before CAO? What a mess.
Insufficient school buses at start of school, issues with the grading system, schools pretty much left alone with organising social distancing…
Very cunning to swap the ministers just before reopening of the country
@Vanessa: Don’t get the school bus issue. Since when is it the taxpayer or Gov’s job to deliver your little Billy to school?
I hope someone topped up the credit on her phone.
onwards and upwards to the next crisis
What happened to people, like my son, who had exemption for Irish?
When they receive the “test message”, will they have to post a correct answer, and more importantly, will there answer be marked correctly. Unlike the spelling in the article. Proof read guys before you post. It just looks lazy not to.
Anna Anna, we want Anna
The department of education have got an F here.
Why can’t we comment on the covid numbers thread?
Does the demographic of LC participants use SMS anymore?
Take a year off now
it would be easy to blame the software company. Most people are. The govt are and all the media outlets seem to be too. But remember the govt went to them with a requirement and then changed that requirement at the last minute. In software the when your client asks you for something and then changes their mind you will run into problems. It is inevitable.
Just look at the govt HSE PPARS mess. Budget was 9 million and topped out at 220 million and still didn’t work properly. Too many cooks spoil the broth. The govt kept moving the goalposts all the way through the project. Just look it up and read the report.
I assume that due to their inability to carry out the task which they were paid for the company that made this serious error will refund any payment received
looks like polymetrika are a one man show who may be clever with math but can’t code to save himself……..
no procurement process…so.thats what you get Norma
Enough!
have your say