UK HIGH COURT INTRODUCES BROADER “OMNIBUS” PIRACY BLOCKING ORDER
The UK High Court has reportedly approved a new “omnibus” site-blocking order allowing rightsholders to move more quickly against piracy services that change domains or branding to evade enforcement.
The order, welcomed by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), is designed to reduce the need for repeated court applications each time pirate operators switch websites or launch mirror services. The move comes as piracy operators increasingly automate domain creation and use more agile infrastructure to avoid blocks.
While the judgment itself has not yet been published, reports indicate it stems from a May 7 High Court ruling in Columbia Pictures and others v British Telecommunications and others, filed in late 2025. According to industry reports, the case extends existing UK dynamic blocking powers beyond specific domains and even beyond “pirate brands”.
Previous UK Section 97A Copyright Act orders required rights holders to identify individual domains for blocking. A 2022 extension allowed action against mirror sites and related pirate brands. The new order reportedly goes further, permitting action against “structurally infringing audiovisual piracy services” meeting defined criteria, without fresh applications for every new site or domain.
The MPA said the order reflects the changing nature of piracy operations.
“Piracy operators often respond by quickly moving to new domains, copycat services, or rebranded websites. That constant ‘hopping’ undermines enforcement and forces rightsholders, courts and intermediaries into repetitive processes,”
the association said.
The development is linked to wider MPA proposals presented to WIPO ahead next month’s Advisory Committee on Enforcement meetings. The paper argues that modern anti-piracy systems should involve a wider range of intermediaries including ISPs, search engines, VPN providers, DNS resolvers, registrars and CDNs. It cites evidence suggesting ISP site blocking reduces traffic to piracy sites by an average of 89%, with stronger results reported in markets including Italy, France, Brazil and India.
The UK move mirrors broader European efforts. France’s Arcom last week published new agreements aimed at speeding cooperation between rights holders, search engines, DNS operators and VPN providers, while Italy has expanded use of rapid blocking under Piracy Shield and intensified enforcement actions against sports piracy networks.
Source: broadbandtvnews.com
