The Constable on October 9th, 2008
Just a year after one of Romania’s most popular BitTorrent sites was raided by the police (and its admins arrested, then released), Torrentbits.ro is now being blocked by one of Romania’s largest ISPs, UPC.
The move mirrors other recent blocks by ISPs, including the now-famous block of The Pirate Bay by Italian ISPs - a block which was later forced to be removed at the behest of the Italian courts.
Kind of makes you rethink Net Neutrality, doesn’t it? While freedom on the net may sound like a great idea at first, perhaps a middle ground can be found where ISPs are at least allowed to block access to sites it deems to be potentially illegal.
Just a thought.
(Thanks to TorrentFreak for the heads-up)
The Constable on September 2nd, 2008
“Following on from the IFPI-inspired Italian blockade of The Pirate Bay, the MPAA’s President has been in Italy offering ideas on how to deal with the ‘problem’ of unauthorized file-sharing. Not wanting to flirt too much with originality, Robert Pisano is backing a 3 strikes-and-you’re-out policy.”
I’m not quite sure how something like this would work - at least unless ISPs have some wording about what is considered “acceptable use” of their network. Even if that’s the case, I’m not even sure if it’s legal for ISPs to determine which sites people can and cannot access and what files they can and cannot transfer online. Then again, since this is generally considered to be illegal activity, they may be able to.
Regardless, this was inevitable. It’s obvious that legal alternatives are not switching people from illegal options, and the only way pirates and others who trade and share intellectual property illegally is to find a way to cut them off. Speaking of which, check back soon for more thoughts on this issue.
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