Britain’s High Court has ordered the country’s internet service providers to block
file-sharing website The Pirate Bay. A High Court judge told Sky, Everything
Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media to prevent access to the Swedish site,
which helps millions of people download copyrighted music, movies and computer
games.

Music industry group BPI welcomed the order by justice Richard Arnold that the
service providers block the site within the next few weeks. BPI chief executive Geoff
Taylor said sites like The Pirate Bay “destroy jobs in the U.K. and undermine
investment in new British artists.”

The service providers said they would comply with the order. A sixth provider, BT,
has been given several weeks to consider its position, but BPI said it expected BT
would also block the website. Providers who refuse could find themselves in breach
of a court order, which can carry a large fine or jail time.

The announcement follows a February ruling by the same judge that the operators
and users of The Pirate Bay have “a common design to infringe” the copyright of
music companies.

In Australia, the movie industry sued ISP iiNet in an attempt to force it to prevent
customers from downloading illegal material from the web, but the courts have
consistently ruled in favour of ISPs. Last month the High Court’s five
judges unanimously dismissed the film industry’s final appeal, but experts say ISPs
will still need to take some action to prevent piracy.

The Pirate Bay has been a thorn in the side of the entertainment industry for years.
In 2010, a Swedish appeals court upheld the copyright infringement convictions of
three men behind the site, but it remains in operation.

The website, which has more than 20 million users around the world, does not host
copyright-protected material itself, but provides a forum for its users to download
content through so-called torrent files. The technology allows users to transfer parts
of a large file from several different users, increasing download speeds.

Defenders of such sites say old creative industry business models have been
overtaken by technology that allows music, movies and games to be acquired at the
touch of a finger on computers, tablets, phones and other devices.

Both O2 and Virgin said banning orders against copyright-breaching sites had to be
accompanied by other measures that reflected consumers’ behavior. O2 said in a
statement that “music rights holders should continue to develop new online business
models to give consumers the content they want, how they want it, for a fair price.”

May 1, 2012 – 7:36AM – AP