[Fsfe-ie] UPC refuses to block Pirate Bay (UPC = NTL and Chorus)

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

UPC refuses to block Pirate Bay
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0819/breaking49.htm

============
UPC Ireland, the parent company of the NTL and Chorus cable television
operators, has rejected a request from music companies to block access to
the Pirate Bay website.

A statement released today by UPC said solicitors acting on behalf of the
Irish divisions of EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony had asked the company to
block the website but they refuse to do so.

The statement read: “UPC has informed the rights holders that there is no
basis under Irish law requiring an ISP to block access to certain websites
and that it will not agree to a request that goes beyond what is currently
provided for under Irish law.”

“Should the rights holders proceed with their threat of legal action if UPC
fails to block access to Pirate Bay, UPC has every intention of vigorously
defending its position in Court.”

The request is separate to ongoing court proceedings by the music companies
over subscribers allegedly involved in illegal music downloads.

Similar proceedings were brought previously against Eircom which settled on
terms including the companies providing Eircom with the IP (internet
protocol) addresses of all people detected as illegally file-sharing
copyright works. Eircom also agreed to disconnect subscribers who ignored
warnings to cease infringements.

The Eircom case was the first here aimed at internet service providers,
rather than individual illegal downloaders. About 20 billion music files
were illegally downloaded worldwide in 2006 alone, it was claimed. Eircom
was ordered to block access to Pirate Bay from September 1st this year.
============


-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan, +32 487 64 17 54, http://ciaran.compsoc.com

Please help build the software patents wiki: http://en.swpat.org

               http://www.EndSoftwarePatents.org

Donate: http://endsoftwarepatents.org/donate
List: http://campaigns.fsf.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/esp-action-alert