Rumor: British Piracy Rates Unaffected by Pirate Bay Ban
Rumor has it that illegal download rates haven't changed at all since The Pirate Bay was banned in the UK.
When the British high courts ruled in favor of imposing a ban on peer-to-peer file sharing site The Pirate Bay [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115923-The-Pirate-Bay-Faces-U-K-Blockade] in the UK a few months back, onlookers were unsure as to how effective an anti-piracy measure the ban would prove to be. Now, we have something that looks like the start of an answer: An anonymous Internet Service Provider (ISP) has revealed that the block has had pretty much no effect on internet-based pirate activities in the UK.
Speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity, a source from within a "major" ISP told of how the ban's initial impact quickly wore off. "We saw a fall at the time of the block," said the mysterious source.
"[The drop was] made more dramatic by the increasing amount of such traffic in the weeks leading up to it...but volumes are already pretty much back to where they were before," it concluded.
The source is said to have stressed that the ISP in question measures download traffic based on how much P2P activity is going on, rather than by counting individual users. With that in mind, it remains possible that the resurgence in P2P activity could be nothing more than a mark of "hardcore" downloaders indulging in a little more piracy than they did before.
Loz Kaye, head of the UK Pirate Party [http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/] (a political party that exists to defend the "digital rights" of British citizens) doesn't sound very surprised. "We've always said that blocking is an ineffective method," he said. "It's not in any way productive. Anyone who knows anything about how the internet works can get around it."
However, the body that proposed and championed the ban, the British Phonographic Institute [http://www.bpi.co.uk/] (BPI; a group that protects the rights of recording artists in the UK), isn't about to give up on its dream of a piracy-free Britain. "We'll take further steps to deal with illegal sites that line their pockets by ripping off everyone who makes the music we enjoy," said the group's head, Geoff Taylor. "We recognize there is more to do to reduce illegal P2P use overall."
While this news is hardly surprising (as a customer of a "major British ISP," I can personally confirm that a wide array of P2P sites are still available to British internet users) it does call into question how exactly bodies like the BPI intend to eradicate piracy. Although The Pirate Bay is nowhere near as popular as it once was, even it remains accessible through a proxy server set up by the UK Pirate Party. So where from here? A never ending game of cat-and-mouse that runs on the words "drink up me hearties, yo-ho," or friendlier steps towards an understanding between consumers and creators as regards the appropriate price for their products? It's too early in the week for this, Escapists. Give me a hand.
Source: BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18833060]
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Rumor has it that illegal download rates haven't changed at all since The Pirate Bay was banned in the UK.
When the British high courts ruled in favor of imposing a ban on peer-to-peer file sharing site The Pirate Bay [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115923-The-Pirate-Bay-Faces-U-K-Blockade] in the UK a few months back, onlookers were unsure as to how effective an anti-piracy measure the ban would prove to be. Now, we have something that looks like the start of an answer: An anonymous Internet Service Provider (ISP) has revealed that the block has had pretty much no effect on internet-based pirate activities in the UK.
Speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity, a source from within a "major" ISP told of how the ban's initial impact quickly wore off. "We saw a fall at the time of the block," said the mysterious source.
"[The drop was] made more dramatic by the increasing amount of such traffic in the weeks leading up to it...but volumes are already pretty much back to where they were before," it concluded.
The source is said to have stressed that the ISP in question measures download traffic based on how much P2P activity is going on, rather than by counting individual users. With that in mind, it remains possible that the resurgence in P2P activity could be nothing more than a mark of "hardcore" downloaders indulging in a little more piracy than they did before.
Loz Kaye, head of the UK Pirate Party [http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/] (a political party that exists to defend the "digital rights" of British citizens) doesn't sound very surprised. "We've always said that blocking is an ineffective method," he said. "It's not in any way productive. Anyone who knows anything about how the internet works can get around it."
However, the body that proposed and championed the ban, the British Phonographic Institute [http://www.bpi.co.uk/] (BPI; a group that protects the rights of recording artists in the UK), isn't about to give up on its dream of a piracy-free Britain. "We'll take further steps to deal with illegal sites that line their pockets by ripping off everyone who makes the music we enjoy," said the group's head, Geoff Taylor. "We recognize there is more to do to reduce illegal P2P use overall."
While this news is hardly surprising (as a customer of a "major British ISP," I can personally confirm that a wide array of P2P sites are still available to British internet users) it does call into question how exactly bodies like the BPI intend to eradicate piracy. Although The Pirate Bay is nowhere near as popular as it once was, even it remains accessible through a proxy server set up by the UK Pirate Party. So where from here? A never ending game of cat-and-mouse that runs on the words "drink up me hearties, yo-ho," or friendlier steps towards an understanding between consumers and creators as regards the appropriate price for their products? It's too early in the week for this, Escapists. Give me a hand.
Source: BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18833060]
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