Film Distributor Village Roadshow Will Aggressively Hunt and Sue Movie Pirates

The chances of getting busted for downloading movies illegally has just increased, by a lot.

Village Roadshow, a major Australian film distributor, has announced an aggressive five-point program for combating piracy.

What will this program involve?

To start off, the film studio has announced it most definitely intends to sue infringers caught downloading illegal content.

It also plans to continue blocking torrent websites by working with Google. The search engine will demote and block piracy sites, while making visible (and accessible) the various legal ways to view content.

You might remember that big court ruling last year which—essentially—made internet service providers responsible for blocking torrent sites. (If not, have no fear. Read up here.)

Village Roadshow mentioned the major “success” it had in pushing the courts toward harsher piracy laws. The company ensured 61 domain names—including Torretz, IsoHunt, TorrentHound and the Pirate Bay—would be blocked by internet service providers.

Since the legislation was introduced there has been a dramatic reduction in downloads from the site, according to Village Roadshow. “In February, [we] will initiate the blocking of a further 40 pirate sites, constituting approximately 90 per cent of the flow,” it announced.

Well then…