Roadshow Films Pty Limited v Telstra Corporation Limited (Extension of Orders)

In this case, the Court was asked to extend the duration of site blocking orders made under section 115A of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The applicants, including Roadshow Films Pty Limited, sought an extension of the orders to disable access to various online locations that infringe or facilitate the infringement of copyright. The respondents included Telstra Corporation Limited and other carriage service providers. The legal issues before the Court included whether the Court should revisit the basis for the initial grant of the orders, the form of orders appropriate for an extension, and the procedure for making an application to extend the orders.

The Court held that it is generally not necessary to revisit the initial basis for the grant of the orders unless circumstances warranting the initial grant have changed. The Court also held that in granting an extension of the orders, the Court should be satisfied that the applicants or their solicitors have visited each of the target online locations and formed a good faith belief that those locations have not permanently ceased to have the primary purpose or primary effect of infringing or facilitating the infringement of copyright. The Court further held that the scheme put in place in the previous orders enabled variations to be made to ensure that, where additional domain names, URLs or IP addresses were used to provide access to the target online location, the applicants may, by their solicitor, provide a certification of the matters to which the Court has referred to the respondents. The Court then went on to set out a procedure for making an application to extend the orders, which included a requirement for the applicants to certify that they have visited each of the target online locations and formed a good faith belief that those locations have not permanently ceased to have the primary purpose or primary effect of infringing or facilitating the infringement of copyright.

The Court then granted an extension of the orders for a further three years, and deleted certain domain names from Schedule 2 of the Orders. The Court also set out a new order 15 that specifies the procedure for making an application to extend the orders, as outlined above. The Court also set out the relevant domain names, IP addresses and URLs in Schedule 2 to the Orders.