Court Orders UK ISP TalkTalk to Block More Piracy Websites

Budget broadband ISP TalkTalk has this week updated their list of blocked websites (i.e. those where they’ve been told to do so by the UK High Court) to include a number of new sites that, following an injunction secured by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), were found to be facilitating internet copyright infringement.

Blocking orders like this, which are underpinned by Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA), are expensive to bring but have in recent years become quite common. Hundreds of websites have been blocked through this approach (thousands if you include their many proxies and mirrors), usually including file sharing (P2P / Torrent), video streaming sites, Sci-Hub and those that sell counterfeit goods etc.

Despite the costs and ease to which such blocks can be circumvented by consumers, Rights Holders often deem it to be a price worth paying as part of their wider efforts to discourage casual piracy. Some studies (example) have similarly suggested that blocking piracy websites tends to result in increased traffic going to legal alternatives, but that may be countered by the rising prices and increasing content fragmentation of those alternatives.

In any case, this week saw TalkTalk implement a bunch of new website blocks. Most of the blocks are just proxies for existing court orders (fairly routine), but the MPA additions also include a few new websites. Credits to TorrentFreak for spotting.