The Pirate Bay Bans ISP In Protest Move

Found on Wired on Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Browse Censorship

Swedish website The Pirate Bay (TPB) has decided to block the Swedish ISP Perspektiv Broadband's users from accessing the TPB's website. The move comes in response to ISP Perspektiv's decision to block its users from accessing the Russian website, allofmp3.com.

One interesting thing to note is that the allofmp3 is legal under Swedish law. There is no legal reason for Perspektiv to block traffic to allofmp3, rather the broadband provider elected to do so, according the The Pirate Bay, after meeting with Swedish and Danish anti-piracy organizations.

The Pirate Bay claims that Perspektiv Bredband "clearly states in their press release that it is a moral and not legal standpoint."

Now not only can Perspektiv Broadband users not access allofmp3, but now they can't access TPB either. The end result could be: enough Perspektiv users complain and company gets rid of its blocking software.

While I agree that Perspektiv's site ban is ultimately a far more chilling threat to concepts like net neutrality, I also hope that we aren't headed toward a future where individual sites begin blocking users as an indirect way of sending a message to abusive companies.

Moral reasons, sure. As if companies have moral reasons. I'd say the ISP has been pressured or "convinced" to do so because getting a "supports censorship" tag isn't in the interest of any company.