High Court Rules UK ISPs Must Block Access To The Pirate Bay

The UK High Court has ruled that all UK ISPs must now block access to The Pirate Bay. The ISPs in question, Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media must now block users from accessing the torrent site. BT, the UK’s largest ISP and owner of the telephone network, has requested more time with which to consider their position on blocking the site. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has said “Sites like The Pirate Bay destroy jobs in the UK and undermine investment in new British artists,” Chief Executive Geoff Taylor of BPI went on to say “The High Court has confirmed that the pirate bay infringes copyright on a massive scale.” Sadly, this course of action which may be considered censorship by some, was bound to happen at some point. Regardless of the efforts the UK’s ISPs put forth, however they wont stop users from accessing the site, with options like VPNs and the Tor Network, bypassing said blocks are not that difficult. It looks like the High Court may have made its ruling but all that will come from it is increased costs for ISPs and potentially higher costs for consumers. As it stands this ruling does not help artists get the money they deserve and on top of that starts the UK further down the slippery slope to internet censorship. It also tends to never work as intended as Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group wonderfully put it “Internet censorship is growing in scope and becoming easier. Yet it never has the effect desired. It simply turns criminals into heroes.” For more info on the topic check the source below.