SYDNEY – Village Roadshow, the ASX-listed No. 1 Australian film distributor of Hollywood hits such as Mad Max, Star Wars and The Avengers, has revealed plans to join Foxtel by launching legal proceedings to block overseas Web sites that allow people to download illegal copies of its movies.Its move follows passage in June of anti-piracy
legislation to block popular Web sites such as The Pirate Bay (CDN, June 24).
The legislation enables Australian copyright holders to ask a Federal Court
judge to issue blocking orders on offending overseas Web sites.
If a judge agrees to issue such an order, Internet providers such as Telstra,
Optus, Dodo and TPG/iiNet are required to comply by disabling access.
“We are absolutely in the process of implementing action to block illegal
sites,” Village Roadshow co-chief executive Graham Burke said yesterday.
“We are going through the legal preparations at this stage and will be
ready in October to go to the courts and ask them to block sites.”
He has declined to name the sites Village Roadshow will be going after. But he
said similar site-blocking legislation has worked well in Europe,
He added: “If piracy is not addressed, there won’t be movies like Red Dog,
Star Wars or Muriel’s Wedding because there will be no business model with
which to make them.”
– Village Roadshow earlier this week announced a record financial result for
the year to June 30, driven it said, by “by strong theatrical content and
a successful strategy focussed on incremental revenue, improved margins and
cost management”. It has predicted huge sales for upcoming blockbusters
including Star Wars – The Force Awakens; Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part 2; and
Spectre, Batman vs Superman. The company reported revenue of just over $1
billion for the year, with net profit at $40.2 million.
