BPI just blocked another load of torrent sites

It seems like every few months I write one of these pieces. Back in May I wrote about how the BPI was “still,” having torrent and download sites blocked by British ISPs, despite the fact that we all know it does diddly squat to those sites' usage numbers and if anything, the extra publicity means more people get clued into downloading films and TV far more easily than you can often do through legitimate channels. Well, guess what? The BPI has done it again.

The sites this time around are a mixture of torrent search engines and music download services. They are:

• 1337x
• BitSnoop
• ExtraTorrent
• Monova
• TorrentCrazy
• TorrentDownloads
• TorrentHound
• Torrentreactor
• Torrentz
• Abmp3
• BeeMP3
• Bomb-MP3
• FileCrop
• FilesTube
• MP3Juices
• eMP3World
• MP3Lemon
• MP3Raid
• MP3Skull
• NewAlbumReleases
• Rapidlibrary

If you've been paying attention, this list is incredibly similar to the one the BPI was touting as its next list of targets earlier this year. Back then it was a selection of sites that the BPI was going to ask to voluntarily shut down or to acquire a legitimate license to distribute music. Isohunt was previously listed but has now closed up shop, and as TorrentFreak points out, GrooveShark has gone legit.

NO, that's a BAD downloader! – Mummy BPI

The blocks of these sites are now court ordered and will come into effect today, Wednesday 30th October. The affected ISPs are the six big ones in the UK, including: BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk. In a statement, the BPI described these blocks as “fair,” despite the fact that there will be perfectly legally distributed material on these sites that will now be harder for people to access.

It did however acknowledge that blocks would never be 100 per cent effective, but felt it was an important step to make. To date, no block has been very effective, despite the BPI's insistence. Since The original blocking of The Pirate Bay, a huge network of proxies has sprung up to continue to provide access, along with browser extensions and even The Pirate Browser itself, which helps circumnavigate any ISP implemented site blocks.KitGuru Says: While anyone that wants to visit these sites will still be able to do so through Proxies, VPNs and other smart-alec ways, there is a simpler method. There's a few ISPs – the smaller ones – that these blocks haven't been forced upon. Mine is one of them. I won't out it as that won't help it stay below the radar, but consider changing company – and if you do, make sure you tell your ISP why. 

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