joebloggs
5th May 2012, 18:34
Virgin Media, Britain’s second-largest broadband provider, has become the first to block access to The Pirate Bay file sharing website after a High Court order.
More than four million subscribers were cut off from www.thepiratebay.se on Wednesday evening.
Virgin Media was one of five major broadband firms ordered to block the website on Monday after an application to the High Court by the BPI, a record industry trade body. The Pirate Bay, based in Sweden, offers an index of millions of copyright songs, films and TV shows to download from other users via the BitTorrent file sharing protocol.
Attempts to access the The Pirate Bay are now diverted to a page explaining it is “not available through Virgin Media”. The firm made technical preparations in expectation of the High Court ruling this week. It is using an adapted version of its "Web Blocker" system, originally developed to restrict access to child abuse material on the web.
In response, users are sharing and tips on how to work around the blocking via Twitter, as well as addresses for the website that are not covered by the High Court order. It allows for more addresses to be cut off over time, however.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/broadband/9242729/The-Pirate-Bay-cut-off-from-millions-of-Virgin-Media-customers.html
censorship :angry: who and how come courts have the powers to do this ? who decides whether a site should be blocked :NoNo:
More than four million subscribers were cut off from www.thepiratebay.se on Wednesday evening.
Virgin Media was one of five major broadband firms ordered to block the website on Monday after an application to the High Court by the BPI, a record industry trade body. The Pirate Bay, based in Sweden, offers an index of millions of copyright songs, films and TV shows to download from other users via the BitTorrent file sharing protocol.
Attempts to access the The Pirate Bay are now diverted to a page explaining it is “not available through Virgin Media”. The firm made technical preparations in expectation of the High Court ruling this week. It is using an adapted version of its "Web Blocker" system, originally developed to restrict access to child abuse material on the web.
In response, users are sharing and tips on how to work around the blocking via Twitter, as well as addresses for the website that are not covered by the High Court order. It allows for more addresses to be cut off over time, however.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/broadband/9242729/The-Pirate-Bay-cut-off-from-millions-of-Virgin-Media-customers.html
censorship :angry: who and how come courts have the powers to do this ? who decides whether a site should be blocked :NoNo: