category
Dec 9, 2025
Court Empowers Hollywood in Race to Block "Wicked: For Good" Piracy * TorrentFreak
TorrentFreak
Australia's Federal Court has responded to an urgent request by the major Hollywood studios, Netflix and Apple, to protect the movie "Wicked: For Good" from some of the world's most notorious pirate streaming sites. After issuing an initial blocking order in November, an unprecedented second was issued two weeks later. Targeting "Additional Urgent Access Means", the order empowers the studios to tackle pirate site countermeasures immediately, without further recourse to the Court.
While Australia's site-blocking mechanism has made few enemies since 2018, it hasn't been known for being fast.
As discussed earlier this year, accuracy has traditionally been favored over speed, which is contrary to less cautious approaches taken in other countries.
After an unprecedented request and cooperation from the Federal Court, Australia will now step up several gears and show whether it can achieve both.
When Justice Halley handed down his order in Universal City Studios LLC v Telstra Limited [2025] FCA 1390 on November 12, in most respects it was much like any other issued in recent years.
Member studios of the MPA - Universal, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, Warner Bros., Netflix and Apple (plus Viacom) requested an injunction under Section 115A of the Copyright Act, requiring around 50 local ISPs (operating as Telstra, Optus, Vocus, TPG Telecom, Aussie Broadband and Superloop) to block 52 overseas-based pirate streaming sites.
The copyright works applicants aim to protect necessarily play a key role in blocking proceedings. The difference in this case was the emphasis placed on the Universal Pictures movie Wicked: For Good and its inevitable appearance on high-traffic sites using familiar branding: HydraHD, Hurawatch, Braflix, Soap2Day, MyFlixer, HiAnime, OnionPlay, 123movies, SolarMovies, Gomovies, Fmovies - the list goes on......and on.
With Wicked: For Good's international release scheduled for November 17, Australian ISPs agreed to take all reasonable steps to disable
