UK’s BPI Pushing For More Ineffective Blocks

[Guest sae24393]

The UK’s British Phonographic Industry (BPI), that works in a similar fashion to the RIAA, has demanded that more websites are blocked by ISPs, in a similar fashion to The Pirate Bay. Those it wants to restrict internet users from accessing include: Fenopy, H33t and Kickass Torrents.

Proponents of website blocking, including the BPI, maintain that they do have an impact on downloads via torrents. However these claims are countered by the torrent sites themselves as well as others. The Pirate Bay claimed its traffic took a massive jump after all the publicity surrounding its blocking by the five major UK ISPs. Similarly, Newzbin2, also blocked within the UK, stated that 95 per cent of its users circumvented the block by using proxies within days of it being enacted.

An unnamed ISP also spoke with the BBC and stated that despite an initial drop in illegal downloads, within days it had recovered to its normal levels as people found ways to get around it.

Despite these far more compelling reports than the posturing by groups like the BPI, the lobbyist organisation has still requested ISPs make these further blocks. The response from the likes of BT, Virgin, TalkTalk, Sky and others has been that unless a court orders them to, they will not block the site.

Head of the Pirate Party UK, Loz Kaye has been speaking about the news. He sides with blocking’s detractors:

“Not only does site blocking fail to achieve its stated aim (as our own proxy has shown), it is setting a highly damaging precedent for those who would restrict freedom of expression on the Internet,” Kaye said. “Earlier this month Foreign Secretary William Hague stated that ’efforts to suppress the Internet are wrong and are bound to fail over time’, yet this government is happy to allow British courts to censor the Internet at the behest of unaccountable corporate interests.”

“While it is encouraging that our ISPs are waiting for a court order, it is likely that, once again, the BPI will be able to make their case with no one present to argue the defence or challenge their questionable evidence. For justice to be done, all sides must be represented in court,” he concluded.

This is exactly the way it went before with the Pirate Bay block. The ISPs resisted until a court held them liable if they didn’t act and then they caved. Chances are this will happen again in this instance.

Their actions aren’t strange though – those of the BPI are. The group must know that the blocks don’t work, so what is it doing it for? Taking a speculative look at the situation, you could conclude that it’s an attempt by the group to be seen to be doing something. This way it justifies its existence and the masses of money injected into it by the big music labels.

However the BPI cannot claim to represent all musical artists. Dan Bull famously released a track with a host of other musicians, all of them calling for the BPI to disband and stop claiming to speak for all musical artists