The High Court in London, UK put a whole new meaning to the term content management system today as it ruled that several of Britain’s leading ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) including SKY, Virgin Media, and Talk Talk must block access to the notorious website that provides free access to its users that allows them to download music, software and movies along with just about anything else. The judgment was made as a result of the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) complaining about the fact that the abuse of copyright was depriving the artists, and background staff such as sound engineers of income.
Internet Blog V3.co.uk obtained comments from several of the ISP’s who have to obey by the ruling including Virgin Media who confirmed “…it had received the court order, but also said it was unconvinced such methods were the best way to stop online copyright infringements…” This appears to be the general consensus amongst most of the providers. The only major player that appears to have escaped being listed in the order is telecommunications giant ‘BT‘ even though they were privately asked by the BPI on a previous occasion to block PirateBay.
So what impact does this have on the ordinary consumer? In truth nothing, that is unless you’re one of the millions who visit PirateBay even though you might not even admit it. But isn’t it the start of ‘Big Brother Syndrome?’ if what we can and cannot see is left to a judge who, with the greatest of respect, and in all truth and honesty, probably doesn’t know the Internet from his elbow. Should a judge have the power to tell us what we can and cannot view? Is this a start of bigger things to come in what could be construed an attempt to keep the rich richer and the poorer where they belong? Our view? Piracy is a crime, so yes, it has to be punished, but not by censorship, it should simply have its limited variants of domain names deleted from the registry databases so it can never ply its trade using their now World famous, or infamous ‘Brand Name.’
Seeing the wood for the trees is clearly not what the BPI are doing because ultimately it isn’t just PirateBay who are culprits in Torrent abuse, as many that get taken down there will be to replace it. Let’s face it, the Internet is monster and it is not going to behave like an obedient lapdog. Red Rag to a bull comes to mind here, our bets is that regardless of the rights or wrongs of the ruling there is no way on earth is it going to put a stop to piracy.
