UK court orders ISPs to block access to file-sharing websites

28 Feb 2013

Six ISPs including Sky, Everything Everyhere, BT, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin have been ordered by a UK court to block access to file-sharing websites KAT, H3T and Fenopy.

Ten record labels, including Sony, Universal and EMI were granted an order by Mr Justice Arnold requiring the ISPs to take measures to block access to the websites.

They have been given 15 working days to comply with the order.

The labels complained that consumers had been using the file-sharing websites to download the latest movies and music.

In the UK, ISPs have already been ordered to block access to sites like The Pirate Pay and Newzbin1.

In Ireland, a similar case is being taken by the record labels EMI, Sony, Warner and Universal against the ISPs UPC, Digiweb, Imagine, Vodafone and 3.

Around this time last year, the Government of Ireland signed a controversial statutory instrument – dubbed ‘Ireland’s SOPA’ – to plug a loophole in Ireland’s copyright laws that previously prevented the labels from successfully suing UPC.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com