More file-sharing sites targeted for blocking in UK

Rights holders have asked the UK's largest internet service providers to block access to three file-sharing websites, reports say.

According to the BBC, the BPI has approached the ISPs regarding Fenopy, H33t and Kickass Torrents, all of which are used to share torrent files for content such as movies and music.

As is becoming customary in such matters, the ISPs — BT, O2, EE, Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk — have said they will only block the sites if told by a court to do so.

The ability to have ISPs block copyright-infringing sites originated in the middle of last year, when a court ordered BT and others to stop their customers accessing Newzbin2. Shortly afterwards, in early November, rights holders asked ISPs to voluntarily block The Pirate Bay without a court order — this was met with a refusal, and the rights holders duly got their court order in late April.

This time round, it appears the BPI wants to speed the process up. The BBC article suggests that the rights holders want to have the sites blocked by Christmas, and quotes copyright lawyer Adam Rendle as saying this may actually happen, due to the precedents set in earlier cases.

Whether or not the blockage achieves its aims is another matter. In the case of The Pirate Bay (TPB), the site's administrators have consistently made it easy to circumvent such barriers by throwing up new IP addresses.