The High Court has ruled today that UK ISPs must block The Pirate Bay.
Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media most now block all access to the Swedish file sharing site. The BPI praised the move, as expected: "Sites like The Pirate Bay destroy jobs in the UK and undermine investment in new British artists."
BT, the last ISP in the region, said it needs a "few more weeks" to consider their position on blocking the torrent tracker.
Adds the BPI CEO Geoff Taylor: "The High Court has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale. Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works without paying a penny to the people who created them. This is wrong - musicians, sound engineers and video editors deserve to be paid for their work just like everyone else."
Following a court order last year in which the ISPs were told to block newsgroup provider Newzbin 2, the BPI asked the ISPs to voluntarily block The Pirate Bay, as well. They did not agree unless there was a court order.
Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, called the move dangerous, as I'm sure many others feel the same way: "It will fuel calls for further, wider and even more drastic calls for internet censorship of many kinds, from pornography to extremism Internet censorship is growing in scope and becoming easier. Yet it never has the effect desired. It simply turns criminals into heroes."
BT, the last ISP in the region, said it needs a "few more weeks" to consider their position on blocking the torrent tracker.
Adds the BPI CEO Geoff Taylor: "The High Court has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale. Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works without paying a penny to the people who created them. This is wrong - musicians, sound engineers and video editors deserve to be paid for their work just like everyone else."
Following a court order last year in which the ISPs were told to block newsgroup provider Newzbin 2, the BPI asked the ISPs to voluntarily block The Pirate Bay, as well. They did not agree unless there was a court order.
Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, called the move dangerous, as I'm sure many others feel the same way: "It will fuel calls for further, wider and even more drastic calls for internet censorship of many kinds, from pornography to extremism Internet censorship is growing in scope and becoming easier. Yet it never has the effect desired. It simply turns criminals into heroes."
