According to recent reports, a whole array of leading broadband providers such as Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Everything Everywhere and O2 are expected to block The Pirate Bay, just like BT has done some time ago after getting a court order.
It might be worth adding that the High Court of Justice made this decision as the site allegedly gave the green light to those who intended to infringe internet copyright to do just that.
The Pirate Bay is a link library to various torrents which contain files such as films and…
Edita Lozovska - 1 May 2012 | comments. Read more
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has just revealed that the sales of physical music (CDs) have taken a 14.1 per cent tumble due to the fact that consumers are warming up to the idea of going digital.
It might be worth adding that income from digital music services have grown by a quarter (24.7 per cent) and reached £281.6m throughout last year.
However, the BPI also continued to blame the Government for taking things slow when it comes “chronic piracy” that broadband subscribers allegedly seem to be indulging in.
The body said…
Geoff Slaughter - 17 February 2012 | comments. Read more
The broadband industry will probably never forget the days of ACS:Law and its notorious leader, Andrew Crossley, who has been given the not-so-prestigious Internet Villain of 2011 award by ISPA.
Today, Crossley stands on front of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal with seven charges against him coming from the SRA (Solicitors Regulatory Authority).
As a quick reminder, ACS:Law made its living by sending out thousands of letters filled with “speculative invoicing” to broadband users which were allegedly illegal downloaders via tracking their IP addresses (this could be easily…
Geoff Slaughter - 16 January 2012 | comments. Read more
Ofcom has recently had a look at the illegal downloading situation in the UK and as a result published three reports.
These are simply pilots which are looking at how severe or indeed minor the piracy problem is in the UK, as the controversial Digital Economy Act (DEA) requires Ofcom to analyse this somewhat grey sphere.
According to the DEA, alleged “illegal downloaders” and “P2P uploaders” should be caught, warned and failing to heed the warnings, disconnected from their broadband subscription.
Ofcom is said to be in the middle of establishing a…
Chris Mizon - 11 January 2012 | comments. Read more
It seems this week Broadbandwatcher will have a nice dodgy-sounding story to share.
Ralli, a solicitors firm, has today confirmed that it forced Golden Eye International to drop its London Patents County Court case against a user who shared adult video content via her broadband connection.
Last year, Golden Eye International sent some sweet speculative invoicing to pay up £700 to the accused woman, as she shared an adult film (later revealed to be Fancy an Indian?) online, which is considered to be piracy or illegal file-sharing. Golden Eye International also…
Geoff Slaughter - 6 January 2012 | comments. Read more
ISPs are to blame as the broadband business is “being built on the back of” illegal downloads said new Sony Music head, Nick Gatfield, during an interview with the Guardian.
In more detail, he said:
“Broadband businesses are being built on the back of illegal filesharing.
“As high-speed broadband becomes ubiquitous the problem is going to get bigger and bigger. We need site-blocking, and it’s an incredibly spurious argument for the ISPs to say that they can’t do it because they can do it and they do do it.”
Broadbandwatcher has previously stated…
Edita Lozovska - 19 December 2011 | comments. Read more
It seems that after BT was forced to block Newzbin2, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) thought this was the perfect opportunity to team up with an array of Rights Holders in a bid to see another website disappear – The Pirate Bay.
As a quick reminder, BT was given two weeks to block Newzbin2, which it did last week as users started noticing that they could not access the page and only saw the “Error site blocked” message.
In terms of the Pirate Bay, again the ISP…
Geoff Slaughter - 7 November 2011 | comments. Read more
Many of you will remember that last week the UK High Court of Justice ordered BT to block a law infringement facilitating website, also known as Newzbin2.
In fact, the court gave it two weeks (14 days) to complete the mission, so to speak, however BT users who tried to access the website already reported that they no longer could.
It seems that merely an “Error site blocked” announcement is what’s left of the once flourishing website for BT customers.
But not for the tech-savvy, of course. According to recent reports, TorrentFreak…
Geoff Slaughter - 4 November 2011 | comments. Read more
According to the Open Rights Group (ORG), internet users were illegally downloading content such as movies and music simply because the possibility to do so lawfully was not too wide-reaching and, well… quite “poor”.
ORG also stated that forcing ISPs to block content was not a very good idea either, as its effect was limited and it would compromise performance, raise prices, and to be brutally honest, it’s not like the same content can resurface with a different domain name in a matter of days.
ORG concluded in its study:
“Availability is…
Geoff Slaughter - 20 October 2011 | comments. Read more
MP Ed Vaizey’s efforts to persuade broadband providers to block websites which facilitate piracy went underway yesterday.
The meeting chaired by Mr Vaizey himself, which many claimed to be long overdue, was organised by Dominque Lazinski from the Tax Payers Alliance.
Representatives from groups such as Pirate Party and the Open Rights Group were also present.
Trefor Davies, Chief Technology Officer of Timico UK, commented on the progress of the assembly, he said:
“I think Ed Vaizey found the level of debate far more constructive than he had been expecting. The gist was…
Emma Tiri - 22 September 2011 | comments. Read more
