British ISPs Ordered to Block The Pirate Bay

[Neil]

Ummm... Kim Schmitz hasn't had a trial yet!?

[LouCipherr]

Ummm... Kim Schmitz hasn't had a trial yet!? This is true, but he's "facing" 50 years in prison. Amazing. So, I can go get drunk and plow into a minivan full of kids, kill them all, and only end up getting 10-20 years (if that)... but if I pirate music, movies, etc. I end up possibly facing 50 years?! The Justice system in the US is FUBAR'd beyond all belief. While some might bring up the amount of copyright infringement by Kim "dotcom" Schmitz and Megaupload, let's also keep in mind that Megaupload was nowhere near the largest file locker/copyright infringing website out there.

[EvilNed]

Ummm... Kim Schmitz hasn't had a trial yet!? As said, the crimes he's being charged with will put him in prison for 50 years. This is just sick, and you know it.

[Sammich]

As said, the crimes he's being charged with will put him in prison for 50 years. This is just sick, and you know it. Another example of the perverted justice system is John Corzine (former CEO Goldman Sachs, former Governor of New Jersey, and former CEO of MF Global), who "misplaced" $1.2 billion from 38,000 MF Global customer accounts and has yet to even be arrested.

[LouCipherr]

Another example of the perverted justice system is John Corzine (former CEO Goldman Sachs, former Governor of New Jersey, and former CEO of MF Global), who "misplaced" $1.2 billion from 38,000 MF Global customer accounts and has yet to even be arrested. Much less charged with any wrong doings. +1, Sammich.

[Sammich]

A member of the old boy's club "misplaces" $1.2 billion and gets off scott free, but a peasant forgets to pay for a $5 sandwich, gets arrested and has their kid taken away: Makiki couple arrested over $5 sandwich A couple's three-year-old daughter was taken away from them for 18 hours after being arrested for forgetting to pay for a $5 sandwich while grocery shopping. "This is unreal this could happen to a family like ours," says Makiki resident Nicole Leszczynski. She is thankful to have her 3-year-old daughter Zophia back home. She says Wednesday their family was torn apart while on a shopping trip at Safeway on Beretania street. "We walked a long way to the grocery store and I was feeling faint, dizzy, like I needed to eat something so we decided to pick up some sandwiches and eat them while we were shopping," she says. Leszczynski who is 30-weeks pregnant, her husband Marcin and daughter Zophia loaded up a shopping cart and paid for $50 worth of groceries. But forgot about the $5 sandwich. More of the "just us" system at work: Feds Seized Hip-Hop Site for a Year, Waiting for Proof of Infringement Federal authorities who seized a popular hip-hop music site based on assertions from the Recording Industry Association of America that it was linking to four “pre-release” music tracks gave it back more than a year later without filing civil or criminal charges because of apparent recording industry delays in confirming infringement, according to court records obtained by Wired. “Here you have ICE making a seizure, based on the say-so of the record company guys, and getting secret extensions as they wait for their masters, the record companies, for evidence to prosecute,” Cohn said in a telephone interview. “This is the RIAA controlling a government investigation and holding it up for a year.” It just doesn't get anymore blatant than that, but it does get more absurd: Terrorist link to copyright piracy alleged That's what the Senate Homeland Security committee heard Wednesday from John Stedman, a lieutenant in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department who's responsible for an eight-person team of intellectual property (IPR) investigators. "Some associates of terrorist groups may be involved in IPR crime," Stedman said. "During the course of our investigations, we have encountered suspects who have shown great affinity for Hezbollah and its leadership." But another witness, Kris Buckner, the president of a private investigation firm that looks into intellectual property violations, said: "I am also frequently asked if terrorist groups profit from the sale of counterfeit goods. I do not know the answer to that question." Buckner has, however, heard "subjects make anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish statements" on raids. What is next? Getting renditioned to Guantanamo Bay because you visted a website that had a link to a copy of Avengers?

[LouCipherr]

More of the "just us" system at work: Feds Seized Hip-Hop Site for a Year, Waiting for Proof of Infringement Federal authorities who seized a popular hip-hop music site based on assertions from the Recording Industry Association of America that it was linking to four “pre-release” music tracks gave it back more than a year later without filing civil or criminal charges because of apparent recording industry delays in confirming infringement, according to court records obtained by Wired. “Here you have ICE making a seizure, based on the say-so of the record company guys, and getting secret extensions as they wait for their masters, the record companies, for evidence to prosecute,” Cohn said in a telephone interview. “This is the RIAA controlling a government investigation and holding it up for a year.” Just started a thread about that very same topic here: Obama is the RIAA's bitch-boy What is next? Getting renditioned to Guantanamo Bay because you visted a website that had a link to a copy of Avengers? As much as it pains me to say it? Yes.

[Danny]

What is next? Getting renditioned to Guantanamo Bay because you visted a website that had a link to a copy of Avengers? given sci-fi horrors like the patriot act and CISPA exist today i would say thats a given. Not long till you get sent there for 'crimes of independent and dangerous thought"

[sanabatool]

Britain's internet providers have been ordered by the high court to block access to the filesharing website The Pirate Bay. The high court on Monday told five leading internet service providers (ISPs) , including Sky and Virgin Media, to block the site in the UK after ruling that it breaches copyright laws. The block, starting within weeks, will mean millions of Britons will no longer be able to access one of the biggest and longest-running global filesharing sites. The high court order provoked criticism from internet advocacy groups, who likened action against illicit filesharing websites to other forms of online censorship. Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said: "Blocking The Pirate Bay is pointless and dangerous.It will fuel calls for further, wider and even more drastic calls for Internet censorship of many kinds, from pornography to extremism. "Internet censorship is growing in scope and becoming easier. Yet it never has the effect desired. It simply turns criminals into heroes." The order to block The Pirate Bay – requested by the major music groups, represented by the British Phonographic Industry – comes as authorities and courts have tightened the net on illicit downloading sites, which film studios and music majors claim are responsible for billions of pounds in lost revenue. Robert Ashcroft, chief executive of the musicians' lobbying group PRS for Music, said: "We're delighted the high court has sent another clear signal to damaging sites like the Pirate Bay that they will be blocked." In the order, the judge Mr Justice Arnold told Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, O2 and Everything Everywhere to begin blocking access to The Pirate Bay. Britain's biggest ISP, BT, also received the court order but has requested further time to consider how to block the site. According to record labels, The Pirate Bay generated up to $3m (£1.8m) from advertising last October by making 4m copies of music and films available to its 30 million users worldwide. The site has 3.7 million users in the UK, according to comScore. Mr Justice Arnold said in a written judgment in February: "In my judgment, the operators of [The Pirate Bay] do authorise its users' infringing acts of copying and communication to the public. They go far beyond merely enabling or assisting. "I conclude that both users and the operators of [The Pirate Bay] infringe the copyrights of the claimants … in the UK." The high court action follows a blocking order made against the Newzbin2 website in October, after a judge found it infringed copyright on a grand scale. The case was seen as a green light for rights holders to force ISPs to block access to a number of high-profile filesharing sites in the UK, using the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

[lewisjerry274]

British courts have ruled that internet service providers in the United Kingdom must block file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. Back in February, a British High Court ruling found that TPB and users of the service breach copyright on a major scale. Justice Arnold of the British High Court ruled that TPB went "far beyond merely enabling or assisting" copyright infringement. Now it seems access to The Pirate Bay will soon be blocked by ISPs across the country. The BBC reports that today's ruling orders five major UK ISPs to block subscribers from accessing TPB. Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media will all have to block The Pirate Bay while British Telecom has asked for more time to review the situation. The case is a massive win for the music and entertainment industry as a whole but particularly for the British Phonographic Industry, which requested that the ISPs voluntarily block TPB late last year. "The High Court has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale," the BBC cites BPI as saying in a statement today. "Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works without paying a penny to the people who created them. This is wrong - musicians, sound engineers and video editors deserve to be paid for their work just like everyone else." Speaking about the decision, a spokesperson for the Pirate Party UK said that today's ruling was a step toward web censorship in the UK. "Unfortunately, the move to order blocking on The Pirate Bay comes as no surprise," Loz Kaye told the BBC. "The truth is that we are on a slippery slope towards internet censorship here in the United Kingdom." The order to block The Pirate Bay follows similar proceedings that saw access to another file-sharing site, Newzbin2, blocked. ISPs were last year ordered to block access to Newzbin2 following a ruling from Mr Justice Arnold, the same judge that presided over today's Pirate Bay case.

[jjoshua213]

The Pirate Bay (commonly abbreviated TPB) is a Swedish file-sharing website founded in 2003 that hosts magnet links and that bills itself as "The world's most resilient BitTorrent site"[4] (as of 2012, "The galaxy's most resilient ..."[5]). The Pirate Bay is currently ranked as the 71st most visited website in the world and 12th in Sweden, according to Alexa Internet.[3] The Pirate Bay has over five million registered users and as of May 2012 hosts over four million torrents.[6] According to the Los Angeles Times, the Pirate Bay is "one of the world's largest facilitators of illegal downloading" and "the most visible member of a burgeoning international anti-copyright or pro-piracy movement"

[LouCipherr]

If they honestly believe that TPB is the "largest facilitator of illegal downloading" they are in for a WORLD of surprise when they find out what's really going on around the internet. Perhaps the largest facilitator they know of, sure.