In what could be dubbed as the king of all DMCA takedown requests, Paris High Court has ordered Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to de-list all infringing URLs belonging to three video portals – Dpstream, Fifostream and Allostreaming.
The High Court order concludes a case dating back to December 2011 which was filed by L’Association des Producteurs de Cinéma (APC), a group that claims to represent over 120 film and TV companies including the likes of Paramount and Sony, against 16 domains related to Dpstream, Fifostream and Allostreaming under Article 336-2 of the Intellectual Property code.
The primary goal of the court case was to get an order forcing Google, Bing and Yahoo to de-list all the URLs connected to the three video portals. Further, the studios wanted to pin the bill of blocking and censorship on ISPs and search engines. For about two years the studios were able to obtain emergency measures, which were not as fruitful as they would have wanted. However the latest court orders have nailed the coffin.
The High Court ruled that APC, FNDF, SEVN along with its members have demonstrated that the three video portals are involved in “distribution of audiovisual works without the consent of their creators,” which implicates copyright infringement. The court has asked all the three search engines and French Orange to “take all necessary measures to prevent the occurrence on their services of any results referring to any of the pages” of Dpstream, Fifostream and Allostreaming.
The 46-page ruling doesn’t end here as the court has ordered Several ISPs including Bouygues Télécom, Darty Télécom, Free, Numéricable, Orange, and SFR to “implement all appropriate means including blocking” to prevent users from accessing the infringing sites and its content.
Film and movie studios are definitely pleased with the decision and in a canned statement said, “The ruling today by the High Court in this case recognized the merits of the approach forcing ISPs and search engines to cooperate with right holders in the protection of the law of literary and artistic property on the Internet.”
The second demand seeking ISPs and search engines to bear the bill of censorship and blocking wasn’t fulfilled though as the court decided otherwise. “The cost of the measures ordered cannot be charged to the defendants who are required to implement them,” the decision reads.
The domains which have been deemed infringing are:
- dpstream.tv
- fifostream.tv
- allostreaming.com
- alloshowtv.com
- allomovies.com
- alloshare.com
- allomegavideo.com
- alloseven.com
- allourls.com
- fifostream.com
- fifostream.net
- fifostream.org
- fifostreaming.com
- fifostreaming.net
- fifostreaming.org
- fifostreaming.tv
