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Categories:Intellectual Property,Litigation / Dispute Resolution

BPI secures High Court illegal website crackdown

28 February 2013 | By Matt Byrne

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The High Court has today (28 February 2013) handed down judgment in a major copyright case that has been described as “a wake-up call for illegal websites”

As a result of today’s judgment, the UK’s six biggest Internet service providers (ISPs) will be forced to block three illegal Bittorrent – or peer-to-peer - websites.

The case was brought by the music industry trade body BPI. General counsel Kiaron Whitehead coordinated the BPI’s case, instructing Forbes Anderson Free partner Andrew Forbes, Blackstone Chambers’ Ian Mill QC and Maitland Chambers’ Edmund Cullen QC along with Blackstone juniors Tom Richards and Shane Sibbel.

Welcoming the judgment, Whitehead described the ruling as “a wake-up call for illegal websites”.

“Website blocking has been re-confirmed as a proportionate remedy for copyright infringement,” added Whitehead. “The judgment will assist copyright holders across the whole of Europe and help encourage online consumer confidence.”

The judgment follows BPI’s successful case last year to block The Pirate Bay (3 May 2012). In the High Court yesterday Mr Justice Arnold ruled that three more internationally popular file-sharing sites, KAT, H33T and Fenopydo, infringe record company copyrights and should be blocked.

KAT in particular was recently identified by the executive office of US president Barack Obama as among the top most-visited sites in the world.

The court has made consequential orders today requiring BSkyB, BT, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media to implement the blocks.

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Readers' comments (3)

  • anon | 28-Feb-2013 8:01 pm

    first of all these sites are not illegal, if they were found to be they could be shut down. users on the sites provide the infringing material. to block these sites completely is to block use of the software bittorrent indiscriminately, and contrevenes the new human right of free access to the internet. I would urge carter ruck and other haphazard cronies to step carefully.

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  • dangermouse (TM) | 1-Mar-2013 4:43 pm

    Anon801pm. Banking is not illegal but if a bank turns a blind eye to money laundering, it rightly gets hit with 9-figure penalties. The operators of these file sharing sites know full well that 99% of the activity on these sites breaches someone's copyright, yet they choose not to try to police it; most of them actively encourage it. To pretend that these sites have any redeeming value or somehow support the "human right" to internet access is ridiculous.

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  • johnny J | 21-Mar-2013 8:59 pm

    Hahaha Dangermouse you really need a lesson in how the world works. How did the banks get so rich? Banks have knowingly laundered cash through the ages, they know which clients are drug barons, porn magnates etc - the money laundering regs are just a new mechanism to stop the new guys getting in on the act.

    The old skool made their money and now want to control who gets wealthy - and damn if some far east pirates cut into their profits.

    Pirates 4ever - fight the power and fight shit music and shit films

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