Belgian ISPs Forced to Block The Pirate Bay
Belgian ISPs Forced to Block The Pirate Bay
Posted 10/04/2011 at 2:58pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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A Belgian appeals court has ordered two Belgian ISPs to begin blocking The Pirate Bay or face fines. The ruling comes after a two year long court battle that originally had the ISPs protected from forced filtering. Now the ISPs have 14 days to comply with the ruling, but The Priate Bay says there is no reason for concern.
According to Pirate Bay, they only see an uptick in traffic when an ISP blocks them. There are numerous methods for circumventing an DNS-level block. They cheekily added their thanks to the Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation (BAF) for the free advertising. BAF takes the situation much more seriously, though, saying that the ISPs were creating a safe haven for piracy. Digital rights groups are hopping mad, pointing out that the block censors all content, even that which was legal.
The wide availability of alternative DNS systems and VPNs seems to negate any efforts to block The Pirate Bay, but copyright holders keep trying, much to TPB’s delight. Do you think ISPs should block sites?
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jihnn
January 17, 2012 at 9:05am
over Christmas i bought skyrim ($59) and arkhan city ($49). i hadn't checked on what kind of drm they had.. there were hoops to jump through. now it is welcome to steam and games for windows. i really didn't want to EVER be part of that kind of crap.
early Jan. my internet was down for 4 days.. guess what i couldn't play the games, maybe there is something i do not know, i couldn't get them to work.
if i can find pirated copies i will most certainly download them just so i will have full acess to my paid for games
Asterixx
October 04, 2011 at 6:04pm
As long as big business makes it easier to pirate than to buy legit, piracy will remain rampant. Price things like movies and music reasonably (though a buck a tune on iTunes is admittedly a big improvement over the $20+ it used to cost for a CD with two good songs and 40 minutes of filler). Release new content in a timely manner (How many months has Cars 2 been out of theatres and still not available on DVD?) and don't saddle them with idiotic DRM schemes that do nothing to stop pirates but do plenty to piss off loyal customers (such as preventing me from ripping a DVD so I can put it on a NAS device and stream it to any TV in my house - cracking the lock and ripping it for personal use is illegal, but downloading the movie isn't, at least not here in Canada [yet]... go figure). Make these simple changes and I'd probably never use Bittorrent again...
And also, don't rip your customers off. When Family Guy was cancelled Seth MacFarlane released a move called "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story". Like many loyal FG fans I bought it. Shortly thereafter I was rewarded for spending my money by seeing the "movie" I'd just bought shown in line with the regular FG season when it was uncancelled. I was pissed. Then Blue Harvest was released. I bought it. Shortly thereafter it too was folded into the regular FG season. Ditto with Something, Something, Something Dark Side. And It's a Trap!. Except I didn't buy It's A Trap, because I knew it would be shown on regular TV and was tired of being ripped off by Seth and Fox. I PRV'd it instead. Similarly, while most TV shows come out on DVD as full seasons, Seth and Fox break up seasons. You don't buy "Season 5", you buy "Volume 5" which only includes a partial season. Again, I got sick of the ripoffs and PVR'd everything instead. Yes, the ones shown on TV are censored, but it ain't worth $40 to hear Stewie say "Fuck" every once in a while...
Neufeldt2002
October 05, 2011 at 8:50am
Can you please point to a source that says it is legal to download a movie in Canada?
Asterixx
October 05, 2011 at 2:36pm
It's not so much that it's legal, it's that it isn't illegal, yet (in other words, a grey area). The current Conservative government is trying to change that, but the last time it went through the courts downloading for personal use was deemed legal, and was actually compared to recording a TV show with a VCR. Actually, even cracking the digital lock isn't illegal here, but the current copyright bill in the house specifically addresses that. For a while even uploading was considered legal because there was no specific law against it, nor had any current laws been interpreted as to how they would apply to it. That, I believe, has since been settled (uploading is indeed illegal).
Some links on the subject (I think the cNet one is outdated though):
http://www.slaw.ca/2009/06/26/maybe-the-jury-didnt-like-the-songs/
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1025_3-5121479.html
Engelsstaub
October 04, 2011 at 9:48pm
Yeah. Me too.
Theft is justifiable if the art sucks or if I feel it costs too much. I hate Lady Gaga. Can't stand her music. So I'm just going to take it. That will teach her to make better albums. They cost so much. If I just steal it that will drive the prices down.
Danthrax66
October 04, 2011 at 6:07pm
Well if artists released better material that $20 CD would be justified.
0ly1r3m@1ns
October 04, 2011 at 3:45pm
no give them an inch and they will take a mile the solution isnt to stop the pirate bay is to make stuff that i want to buy sure that movie was nice but all it is repackaged shit again and again no way am i shelling out cold hard cash for some thing thats been done a few times to many, i pirate alot of stuff if i like it or use it enough i do go and buy it i pirate a fair bit of music a but the second i see it in hmv or a music store i buy it (cause the music i love isnt easy to find nor do i want to give apple my money) that being said make quality stuff me and most pirates will buy it
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