Authors and Publishers Win High Court Support in Fight Against Infringement
The High Court has granted an application brought by the Publishers Association requiring the UK’s main Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to a collection of websites that provide unlawful access to books and journals.
The order, granted under section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, applies to sites which host and provide access to substantial amounts of infringing content.
Website blocking as a remedy for tackling piracy was first deployed by publishers collectively in 2015. Essentially, the court can be asked to order intermediaries to intervene to prevent access to websites which infringe copyright. This is particularly useful in dealing with online piracy, where site operators routinely conceal their identity, operations and location.
The UK has a gold-standard law related to site blocking, which countries around the world have sought to emulate. This particular order is a relatively new ‘breed’ of blocking order – and a first of its kind for UK publishing – because it also targets ‘copycat’ domains that trade off existing pirate brands. The order will continue the blocking of sites first blocked in 2015, as well as extending to ‘copycat’ domains, sites linked to the original targets and a number of newly added domains. The order will impact sites and networks including Library Genesis, Z-Library and Anna’s Archive and attempts to circumvent it.
Within 10 working days of notification, BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, EE and Plusnet will be required to block customer access to the sites. These ISPs are not themselves accused of any wrongdoing.
The piracy sites and networks, which are the subject of this order, infringe copyright on a massive scale. For example, the Publishers Association has identified through its Copyright Infringement Portal over one million copyright infringing book and journal URLs on Anna’s Archive domains. In addition, rightsholders have requested delisting from Google search results of over 280 million URLs which link to copyright-protected content made available without permission on Anna’s Archive domains.
Commenting, a Publishers Association spokesperson said:
“Expanding digital markets and technological advancement inevitably result in growth in levels of online infringement. Our members need to be able to protect authors’ works from such illegal activity. Authors need to be compensated for their work and publishers and booksellers need to be able to continue to innovate and invest in new talent and material.
“We are pleased that the High Court has granted this extended order and, in doing so, recognised the damage inflicted on UK authors, publishers and booksellers by online piracy. This could not be more important than at a time when the internet is being scraped and books and journals used at scale unlawfully in the training of LLMs without compensation or acknowledgment.”
Site blocking is just one part of a suite of Content Protection & Enforcement work undertaken by the Publishers Association on behalf of its members. In late 2022, the Publishers Association was publicly acknowledged by the US Department of Justice as having provided critical assistance in the FBI-led global shutdown of over 200 websites which formed part of the notorious piracy network, Z-Library. The Publishers Association also has close ties with the renowned City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) and wider international law enforcement, and operates a Copyright Infringement Portal, which enables publishers to issue takedown notices where book and journal content is made available online unlawfully.
The Publishers Association wishes to thank Publishers Licensing Services (PLS) for its support over the past three years in connection with its Content Protection & Enforcement work.
The applicants were represented in this matter by Wiggin LLP.