UK High Court rules ISPs must block more torrent sites

While we've known this was likely to happen for some time, it's only today that the High Court has officially made its ruling: torrent search sites Fenopy, Kickass Torrents and H33T, must be blocked by all major ISPs thanks to pressure from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The BPI has been pushing for more of these blocks for some time, having achieved similar blocks against sites like Newzbin2 and The Pirate Bay – despite the fact that the blocks have been almost unanimously claimed, completely useless as they don't affect traffic at all.

Many groups have argued against BPI claims of deliberate copyright infringement, suggesting that the reasons sites like these get much use at all is because of the lack of legal alternatives. The landscape is certainly improving, but if you don't want to use iTunes or Amazon and want to download music, there still aren't a lot of alternatives – especially if you live in Germany, where the license fees for music providers are so high.

It's likely that the first ISP to be forced to block this trio of sites will be BT, with the other few big ones following shortly after. Of course if you're a customer of one of the smaller broadband providers in the country, then you don't need to worry about the block since the BPI apparently doesn't consider you worthwhile blocking.

KitGuru Says: More misguided action by the BPI. It makes itself look completely redundant with moves like this. It knows these blocks do nothing, but it would rather be seen to be doing something than actually figure out a way to benefit its artists. Good job guys.

[Thanks BBC]

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