[whyumadtho]

MOD EDIT: Links or descriptions for work-arounds, alternative sites, proxies, etc. will be removed and warned.

BBC News

File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled.

The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly-pirated, free music and video.

Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site.

"Sites like The Pirate Bay destroy jobs in the UK and undermine investment in new British artists," the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said.

The BPI's chief executive Geoff Taylor said: "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."

Virgin Media told the BBC they will comply with the request, but warned such measures are, in the long term, somewhat ineffective.

"As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company but strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price."

Of course, this can be bypassed with insouciant ease. What are your thoughts?

[Kiss]

I'll stick to filiming in the cinema if it comes to the worst

[That Bearded Man]

I love the pirate bay too let's hope this fails

[rosehx]

it's a bit ridiculous, anyone who illegally downloads regularly will know that the pirate bay isn't the only bittorrent site.

[Hopple]

Today's google most searched: "How to get around ISP block on Pirate Bay".

Tomorrow: back to normal

[Stiff Little Fingers]

Stop bitching, make DVD's/CD's etc sensibly priced and then people might actually buy it.

As it is, I'm not paying £10 for an album where about £2 will actually go to the artist and the rest to ****ing record companies and all those soulless, suckers of satans cock that work for them.

[Abbadon27]

I doubt it will ever actually happen tbh, this sort of thing always tend to be forgotten about after a while.

And if it does happen there will always be an easy work around.

[internet tough guy]

theres always another way round, what are they going to do? ban all torrent sites? and then what next, because torrents aren't the only way to get hold of a film, album or video game

[aja89]

Blocking The Pirate Bay is like blocking a river with a single stone. You can't stop the free flow. Industry, adapt or die, no victory here.

[sr90]

They're making it sound as if this is the only torrent site in existance. Besides, i'm sure they already blocked TPB somewhere and it was just rehosted within an hour.

This will have the same effect that shutting Limewire down did - i.e **** all.

[NDGAARONDI]

(Original post by whyumadtho)

BBC News

File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled.

The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly-pirated, free music and video.

Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site.

"Sites like The Pirate Bay destroy jobs in the UK and undermine investment in new British artists," the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said.

The BPI's chief executive Geoff Taylor said: "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."

Virgin Media told the BBC they will comply with the request, but warned such measures are, in the long term, somewhat ineffective.

"As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company but strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price."

Of course, this can be bypassed with insouciant ease. What are your thoughts?

I like how BitTorrent sites are singled out for criminal activity while I can buy counterfeit goods on eBay. Both have legitimate uses. Perhaps cars should be restricted to 70mph then.

[f1mad]

The war on piracy is exactly like the war on drugs.

It's failing.

Blocking TBP (allegedly) won't do much, there's thousands over other sites waiting to open their arms to pirates .

[Keckers]

Well this is what happens when you give people power in areas they know very little about.

[TheHansa]

Why is it so bad that companies are preventing people taking for free and without their permsission, what they have made (aka stealing)?

[Kaiser MacCleg]

(Original post by TheHansa)
Why is it so bad that companies are preventing people taking for free and without their permsission, what they have made (aka stealing)?

Not sure that anyone's saying it's wrong, just that it'll fail.

[Sisu]

(Original post by TheHansa)
Why is it so bad that companies are preventing people taking for free and without their permsission, what they have made (aka stealing)?

It comes down to whether you believe in intellectual property. If someone made the first chair and you brought that chair and made one for yourself and multiple and starting selling them, is it stealing?

[Zenzic]

Welcome to China, the home of oppression and censorship

[Aj12]

"Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works without paying a penny to the people who created them.

Yes providing these things for free is really lining their pockets...

[TheHansa]

(Original post by Sisu)
It comes down to whether you believe in intellectual property. If someone made the first chair and you brought that chair and made one for yourself and multiple and starting selling them, is it stealing?

It's a poor analogy because you wouldn't patent a chair but you could patent a particular model of chair, nobody owns exclusive rights to make motion pictures but a person can own a particular motion picture.

[Damask-]

Remember when shutting down Napster was going to mean the end of piracy.