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Business News
First piracy site web-blocked under new law in Singapore
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 17 February 2016
The first website to be blocked on copyright grounds in Singapore will be Solarmovie.ph. So well done to those guys. I’ll make you a t-shirt.
As previously reported, the island nation’s parliament passed web-blocking laws back in 2014, getting the anti-piracy system onto the statute book pretty quickly. Despite the controversy that usually surrounds any moves to write new laws that introduce measures to force internet service providers to block access to websites accused of enabling rampant copyright infringement.
However, despite welcoming that move, it took a while for the entertainment industry to get a web-block application into court. Now, according to Torrentfreak, Singapore’s High Court has ordered local net firms to block access to the Solarmovie.ph site which, as its name suggests, is mainly a source of links to pirated movies.
The boss of the Motion Picture Association’s Asia-Pacific branch, Mike Ellis, welcomed the news, saying: “It is important that the creative industries are able to work via Singapore’s High Court to take a reasonable step forward to limit content theft. Piracy websites not only stifle the growth of legal online platforms for movies and television shows, they may also pose a risk of malware infection”.
In many countries where web-blocking is introduced – whether via new legislation or a precedent-setting judgement in court – The Pirate Bay is often the first target for a blockade. Though it’s thought that the Bay is likely on a list of sites the record industry is concurrently seeking to block under the new laws in Singapore.
