The UK High Court has ruled that major ISPs must block access to a further two streaming sites, in an ongoing effort to try and reduce the number of sharing websites available to the public.
The two sites, SolarMovie and Tubeplus were added to the list by High Court Judge Lord Justice Arnold and will take effect sometime in early December. The decision went unopposed by the 6 largest ISPs in the UK – BT, Sky, Virgin Media, EE, TalkTalk and O2.
The ruling is something of a landmark in anti-piracy law, as it marks the first time a streaming website has been banned. Previous episodes in the anti-piracy saga have all involved torrent websites being on the banned list.
Creative campaign groups, such as PACT (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television) and Equity were all too pleased to hear the ruling, which they say will “protect the jobs of tens of thousands of people in the UK and the investments made in new content”.
The two new additions, whilst being the first two streaming websites, are just another couple of names to be added to the list which is now 30 strong, with other names such as Project-Free TV, The Pirate Bay and many other slightly less infamous sites making an appearance.
Some have daubed the UK as being the easiest place to have a website censored on copyright grounds, which is welcome news for owners of copyright all round. The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has brought many of the cases to court, and welcomed this latest ruling. President of the MPA (EMEA), Chris Marcich, said “we want an internet that works for everyone, where the creative property of artists and creators is protected along with the privacy and security of all users”.
Despite more and more websites being banned, some have criticised the move, warning that banning websites will start a game of cat and mouse between the courts and ISPs holding the copyright and the websites trying to infringe it.
