Federal Court adds three more years and trims a dozen dead addresses from the block list
The Federal Court has ordered Australia's major internet providers to keep blocking KickassTorrents, a site used to share pirated music, for another three years.
The decision in Universal Music Australia Pty Limited v TPG Internet Pty Ltd (No 2) [2026] FCA 731, which the court handed down on 12 June, extended orders that first took effect in April 2017 under s 115A of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).
Section 115A allows copyright owners to ask the Federal Court to require carriage service providers (CSPs) to take reasonable steps to disable access to overseas websites that infringe copyright or facilitate its infringement. Universal Music, APRA, Sony Music, Warner Music and other rights holders brought the action; the respondents include TPG, Optus entities, Telstra and Foxtel.
The court flagged one point that sets this round apart: the extension keeps the 2017 orders running for more than 10 years in total. Because of that duration, the court asked the applicants' solicitors to certify their good-faith belief that the blocked locations still engage in the same infringing conduct. The solicitors provided that certification on 22 May 2026, and disclosed, in the process, that some domains had gone inactive while others remained live.
The court flagged one point that set this round apart: the extension kept the 2017 orders running for more than 10 years in total. Because of that duration, the court asked the applicants' solicitors to certify their good-faith belief that the blocked locations still engaged in the same infringing conduct.
The solicitors provided that certification on 22 May 2026, and disclosed in the process that some domains had gone inactive while others remained live.
The orders also made a series of administrative updates. The court removed 12 domain names that no longer route users to the target sites, including kat.al, kickass.cd and kickass.pe. It substituted Telstra Limited for an earlier respondent, struck out respondents that no longer operate as CSPs, and joined Amaysim Mobile and Optus Satellite as related CSPs.
The court decided the application on the papers, without a hearing, relying on the written certification from the labels' solicitors. It followed an approach set out in an earlier site-blocking case: the court generally does not revisit why an order was first granted unless circumstances have changed, and where a blocked site is still running after several years, it may be treated as a long-term infringing operation. The court said the same certification process should apply to any future extension in the case.
The providers did not contest the extension, ; most consented, and none objected. Courts have granted similar blocking orders in a string of cases brought by film and music companies. Australia's site-blocking regime, introduced in 2015, allows copyright owners to have overseas sites blocked without having to prove that internet providers themselves did anything wrong.
