UK: The Pirate Bay must be blocked by ISPs, court rules

The UK High Court has ruled that file-sharing website The Pirate Bay must be blocked by internet service providers. The Swedish site, which provides links to download free music and video, which critics claim are are mostly pirated, will be blocked by Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media. BT requested “a few more weeks” to consider their position on blocking the site. The same group of ISP’s were asked by the British Phonographic Industry to voluntarily block access to the site in 2011, but they refused to do so, unless a court order was made.

UK: BT and TalkTalk challenge Digital Economy Act

Two of the United Kingdom’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) have requested a judicial review be launched into the Digital Economy Act. BT and TalkTalk claim that the act, designed to reduce internet piracy, contravenes European Union legislation. They say the act, which was rushed through parliament before the May general election, will force them to disconnect customer subscriptions on copyright grounds. BT and TalkTalk claim the regulations infringe basic rights and freedoms whilst financially disadvantaging larger ISPs because the legislation will not apply to ISPs with less than 400,000 subscribers.

Sweden pulls plug on Pirate Bay

The file-sharing website The Pirate Bay is now offline following a ruling by a Swedish court that ordered its largest internet service provider, Black Internet, to cut their service to the filesharing site. The court threatened Black Internet with a 500,000 kronor (£43,188) fine for failure to comply to withdraw services until the ongoing case between Pirate Bay and the entertainment industry is over. Read more here

Pirate Bay faces Hollywood lawsuit

Thirteen movie studios including Disney, Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios are suing to shut down The Pirate Bay saying that the site is continuing to infringe their copyrights. Peter Sunde, a co-founder of high-profile file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, says new legal action against the site is nothing more than “harassment”. Read more here