03/05/2012 - ISP Virgin Media first to enforce court order

Following a high court order on Monday ordering British Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay (TPB), Virgin Media has become the first to implement the ban. British users trying to access the site on Wednesday got the following message:

“Virgin Media has received an order from the courts requiring it to prevent access to The Pirate Bay in order to help protect against copyright infringement. As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company but strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price.”

Other ISPs like Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and BT will comply with the order in the coming weeks.

TPB’s reaction was typically defiant. “The Western countries of the world all complaints about the censorship in Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and so on. But they are really the worst culprits themselves, having double morals in doing an even worse thing themselves. No one from TPB was invited to the court case, which would be normal to do in a democracy. This is not the first time this happens, it’s been the same in most countries we’re censored in. We have no right to speak since we’re not rich,” read a statement from them.

However, the court order has had the opposite effect amongst end users. Traffic to TPB rose by 12 million users following news of the blocking. And TPB has provided simple solutions to UK users to circumvent the block. All other file-sharing sites remain available.