The British Phonographic Industry pushes ISPs to block more sites

By EDRi · February 27, 2013

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) continues its offensive against
torrent websites that are accused of copyright infringement.

Based on the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act from 1998, the group
obtained in 2012, from the High Court, the blocking of Newzbin2 and The
Pirate Bay through several big UK ISPs and in October 2012, asked again
six ISPs (BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk) to begin blocking
three more leading BitTorrent sites, Fenopy, H33t and Kickass Torrents.

The ISPs have agreed to block these sites, but only on the basis of a
court order. Therefore, BPI has filed this case to the High Court which
is expected to decide shortly and to issue the blocking orders.
Apparently, the ISPs will not contest the orders.

“Website blocking is an extreme response. There are growing fears this
precedent will make it too easy and quick to block sites. Time needs to
be taken to consider the legitimate use of the sites. There needs to be
a more specific and adequate definition of the precise URL or IP address
to be blocked to prevent mistakes,” says EDRi member Open Rights Group.

While the sites can be blocked by ISPs only by court order, copycat
sites with similar names can be blocked directly without the need of a
court intervention and without transparency.

“Once a site is blocked, its alleged clone sites can also be blocked,
but in this case, BPI will be able to practice this without a court
order. The decisions would be made between BPI and ISPs and will not be
published,” stated Open Rights Group.

Another major concern is that the blocking is indefinite. If the list of
blocked sites is growing, there might be a large number of sites hidden
from the public.

BPI set to block three more BitTorrent sites (18.02.2013)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2013/bpi-fenopy-block

BPI wants to block more music download sites (25.02.2013)
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/380074/bpi-wants-to-block-more-music-download-sites

BitTorrent Site Admin Hits Out at UK Music Industry Site Blocking Demand
(24.02.2013)
http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-site-admin-hits-out-at-uk-music-industry-site-blocking-demand-130224/

EDRi-gram: UK High Court orders ISPs to block The Pirate Bay (9.05.2012)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.9/high-court-isps-uk-tpb