back to article Europe-wide BitTorrent indexer blockade looms after Pirate Bay blow

Europe's highest court has ruled that notorious torrent search engine The Pirate Bay infringes copyright, opening the door for ISPs across the continent to be obliged to block access to it. The decision is just the latest in a seven-year legal battle between Dutch anti-piracy group Brein and ISPs Ziggo and XS4All, and provides …

  1. Your alien overlord - fear me

    So, peer to peer networks are out. What about downloading files directly? Or is that also covered?

    Just asking for a friend, obviously !!

    1. NoneSuch Silver badge
      Joke

      Libraries are next. The Dewey Decimal System tells people where to go to find copyrighted books which is exactly how The Pirate Bay works.

      After that comes cops giving directions.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't shoot the messenger

    As much as i hate freetard pirates, thry are essentially costing anyone who buys content legally money, as we subsidise their freetard ways.

    However, this ruling basically means Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, WhatsApp are also guilty of terrorism, as they are also messengers

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't shoot the messenger

      The cost is the maximum the market will bear.

      Since the replication cost is zero, it doesn't matter if 1 or 10,000,000 copies are made, and in fact the market has no way of sensing how many unofficial copies exist.

      Advertising is the big stealth tax elephant in the room.

    2. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Re: Don't shoot the messenger

      Indeed. It's hard to see how this bit:

      "by means of indexation of metadata relating to protected works and the provision of a search engine"

      Wouldn't also apply to Google and Bing.

    3. Lost In Clouds of Data

      Re: Don't shoot the messenger

      You obviously missed the nuance of the ruling. The fact that TPB themselves deliberately and methodically categorize, index and filter records according to context and content of the files being pointed to, knowing full well as to the legal status of said content, tipped them over the edge into the waters of illegality.

      From what it seems had they done very little in that regard and simply presented the users with an uncurated list of files it found, then they'd have been fine.

      So since Microsoft, Facebook, Google et all do not categorize other people's files, posts, messages etc., especially being aware of the legal or illegal status of said content, in the same way, that legal nuance doesn't apply. Any categorization of posts or files is performed by the poster or other users.

      1. Tom 38
        Angel

        Re: Don't shoot the messenger

        TPB themselves deliberately and methodically categorize, index and filter records

        Oh really, they do? How many staff do TPB have doing this do you think? Oh, they don't have staff? The categorisation and flagging is done by users of the platform? Oh my!

        1. Lost In Clouds of Data

          Re: Don't shoot the messenger

          Again the nuance is missed - it doesn't matter just HOW that is performed, just the fact it IS performed using their platform and that TPB not only allow it to happen but expect it to be performed knowing full well what the net result is.

          Again if TPB had taken steps to block users from this then it looks possibly that they could have escaped this, but since it was the express purpose of the site, they were doomed in the eyes of the court.

          They didn't just host links, they hosted curated links and the platform was set up that way.

          1. Kiwi

            Re: Don't shoot the messenger

            Again the nuance is missed - it doesn't matter just HOW that is performed, just the fact it IS performed using their platform and that Google not only allow it to happen but expect it to be performed knowing full well what the net result is.

            FTFY.

            Try a search on Youtube. Say "2017 full movie". If you get any results back, well...

            (Just tried it and yes, got a just-released movie that hasn't yet come out on DVD/BR in NZ, playing at 1080.

      2. phuzz Silver badge

        Re: Don't shoot the messenger

        I was under the impression that Facebook do remove posts that breach their guidelines, so wouldn't that make FB a curated service? Google have multiple products which are not treated the same, Gmail is not curated, but Youtube is.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Don't shoot the messenger

          Again missing the point. They actively removed infringing materiel. Pirate Bay don't

      3. Robert Helpmann??
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Don't shoot the messenger

        So since Microsoft, Facebook, Google et all do not categorize other people's files, posts, messages etc., especially being aware of the legal or illegal status of said content, in the same way, that legal nuance doesn't apply.

        Do you use a different Google than I do? They have been pioneers of automatic categorization and have also put their metaphorical backs into making others' work available online, regardless of their wishes. MS, FB and others are playing catch-up, but see the value in following suit. In fact, Google hosts plenty of copyrighted material (YouTube is still theirs, right?), so the comparison with TPB looks even worse in that light.

        I am not apologizing for bad behavior on anyone's part by pointing out that all the cool kids do it, but there is more than a bit of hypocrisy at play here.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Microsoft/Facebook/Google categorizing other people's files

        They may not be "aware" of the legal or illegal status of those files, but since everything I write, every picture I take, etc. is copyright by me under US law (and that's probably true in most places) they can't claim not to know that most files or pictures they link to (and cache in many cases) are copyright material.

        It is a slippery slope from criminalizing the Pirate Bay to deciding that Google and Bing are guilty as well. What's the difference between linking to someone's blog and Disney's latest film? The fact that Disney may lose a lot of revenue from piracy, while the person with the blog was never going to make any money from posting her thoughts about Kim K's outfit?

    4. collinsl Bronze badge

      Re: Don't shoot the messenger

      How would you categorise those that only download old content or material that is not otherwise available by any legal means?

  3. MartinB105

    Last month, I tried to purchase two albums (I live in the Netherlands). Amazon UK and DE wouldn't allow me to do so because I couldn't provide a payment method issued within their respective regions. iTunes is out because I run Linux. Spotify and other similar services had the albums, but only available as streaming; no option to permanent download them to play on my Kodi HTPC + MP3 player.

    I ended up pirating the albums because I exhausted all the legal options I could find.

    So how about this: I'll stop pirating stuff when the industry starts providing a legal alternative. Seems like a fair deal, yes?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Simple translation: "I did my best to find excuses to pirate because I don't want to pay for it, after all".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        OK, so it's impossible to buy albums in the Netherlands? Such a remote and undeveloped country?

        1) Physical shops are all closed in the Netherlands? Here they still exist, if they have not an album but it's in catalog they'll order it

        2) Amazon is the only way to buy albums online in the Netherlands?

        3) Amazon DE and UK didn't accept his payment method, what he tried to use, bitcoins? I live in Italy and I have no issue to buy albums from Amazon UK.

        All that smells made up, just to justify pirating. If you like to be a pirate say it, if you believe music costs too much and you don't want to pay say it, but, please, don't make up excuses you can't buy albums because no one sells you, poor lad...

        1. Patrician

          Actually you are incorrect; I've come across the Amazon "Payment method in accessing country" issue myself. There was a link on a bands YouTube site to purchase their CD which I clicked and didn't notice that the link was for Amazon.com and not amazon.co.uk. It wouldn't let me purchase from the .com site using my UK CC's.

          1. MartinB105

            To those suggestion I buy the albums on CD and rip them instead:

            1. I don't own a CD drive and have no intention of buying one.

            2. These two albums were videogame soundtracks; one of them isn't even available on CD. Availability of these albums is not exactly widespread.

            3. It's 2017 and I think we should be done with physical media for music by now.

            To those suggesting I'm making up excuses to justify piracy:

            1. OK. Believe what you like. I couldn't care less what you think.

            2. Amazon UK/DE has worked for me in the past. Now it doesn't.

            3. Here's a copy of the follow up email from Amazon sent on 16th May explaining that it is not possible to buy digital music from Amazon in the Netherlands:

            --------------

            Hello Martin,

            Thank you for the nice phone call!

            I am sorry that Amazon Music is not available in the Netherlands.

            Sadly one can only purchase Amazon Music from Amazon.de in Germany and Austria.

            Buying music from Amazon is only available in Germany, Austria, Great-Britain, France, USA, Japan, Spain and Italy.

            I have passed your suggestion, that Amazon Music should be available in the Netherlands, on to the appropriate department in our company for consideration.

            We always want to know how our customers react to all aspects of shopping at Amazon.de as this helps us to continue to improve the selection and service we provide.

            Thank you for writing to us with your proposal.

            <snip>

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              You didn't specify you were trying to buy from Amazon Music - you just wrote "Amazon" and "albums".

              Amazon Music is rolling out in several countries, but it's a quite recent service. To sell digital music you'll need agreements. Hope EU will soon enforce a single digital market as well.

              BTW: actually, physical media are an excellent backup - and sound far better than MP3s. And if you don't want a CD player, it's an issue of yours, not of those who sell music.

              But if you listen to games soundtracks, well, maybe you don't need the quality....

              1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                "actually, physical media are an excellent backup - and sound far better than MP3s."
                After a recent discussion here on El Reg I decided to test that assertion. It might be the case that when I was younger and the codecs were less well-developed that there was a difference. I could not detect any difference between SACD, CD, Flac, or 320 kbps MP3. And I'm talking active listening here, not as background.

              2. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                "But if you listen to games soundtracks, well, maybe you don't need the quality...."

                Classic FM now feature a games music weekly programme - as well as including them in its regular programmes. The composers, arrangers, and musicians/choirs are regarded on a par with those of block-buster film scores.

              3. Kiwi
                Boffin

                You didn't specify you were trying to buy from Amazon Music - you just wrote "Amazon" and "albums".

                But amazon.all are a pirate company! They provide pirated CD's and DVD's!

                Just had a look at the license on a copy of "From Dusk Till Dawn", and has the usual stuff on it including "unathorized...lending, hiring, ...re-sale"

                A great many (IME, in NZ) DVD's and CD's have a prohibition on selling or giving away, and I'm quite sure this exists around the rest of the world. Yet Amazon, Discoggs, and many others sell 2nd hand material despite it clearly being against the "license" to do so. The copyright holders said "you cannot" yet Amazon does.

                So buying from them is piracy (if you're buying 2nd hand).

                Just as another note, all of the 15 or so DVD's I checked in the large collection a friend of mine has (at least 200), all of which were store-brought and most of which purchased in large chain stores (eg The Warehouse or certain supermarkets), were not available for sale outside of Australia. Many of others in his collection have a ratings sticker actually covering the license text, rendering the license unreadable without removing the sticker (which I believe would be technically illegal in its own right, and probably would not come off cleanly). Even though said DVD's were brought honestly by someone who was building up a collection, a large number of them were purchased illegally as they cannot be sold outside Oz, and yet were.

                And that's the way for most other CD's and DVD's. We can only buy them when other people sell them outside the licensed area. NZ is too small normally for anyone to worry about it. Of course, if the media companies would just sell DVD's and CD's to those who want them, my friend wouldn't have purchased a very large collection of pirated DVD's. Despite that the makers got their rightful money.

                As to CD's "sounding better" than MP3s, that's simply rubbish. If you record the MP3 at a high enough quality the sound is indistinguishable from CD's. And in some circumstances 96k is plenty high enough (eg if your car is noisy or you have a rather crap sound system). Most people don't care at 128, many won't notice at 160 (especially given the crap speakers/earbuds etc they listen on - when they think putting their tinny phone speaker on a cardboard box makes it sound "good" you can probably get away with recording the track at 5k, why bother with higher?), few would notice above 192k, even those of us with better than average hearing for a 40yo.

                (PG also covered it quite well)

                1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                  @ kiwi

                  "Just had a look at the license on a copy of "From Dusk Till Dawn", and has the usual stuff on it including "unathorized...lending, hiring, ...re-sale""
                  Just checked some of my DVDs and all they say is "Licensed for Home Viewing Only. May not be duplicated." Where are these extra words printed?

                  Some years ago I purchased a computer game for The Gitling from Harvey Norman. It wouldn't install so I took it back. The salesdroid peeled the price sticker back to reveal the words "For Sale in North America and Canada Only".

                  "All you have to do is change your regional settings."

                  "That's going to fuck Excel and Word then! Why are you selling greyware instead of legit software?"

                  "We only sell greyware! Our customers prefer it because it's cheaper."

                  Last time I ever shopped there.

                  BTW More than happy to consider you Kiwis as honorary Australian citizens. After all, there's more of you over here than there ;-)

            2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

              "2. Amazon UK/DE has worked for me in the past. Now it doesn't."

              it's probably related to the new rules on VAT and where it's payable when distance purchasing across borders. Borders? I hear you ask, isn't the EU supposed to be a "common market" with free trade? Apparently only under the right circumstances, especially where digital content and IP rights holders are involved.

          2. Matthew Brasier

            That's different, purchasing from Amazon US when you are in the UK is not the same as purchasing from Amazon EU when you are in the EU (independent of which EU nation you are in).

            1. Tom 38

              That's different, purchasing from Amazon US when you are in the UK is not the same as purchasing from Amazon EU when you are in the EU

              Why? There are no laws stopping Amazon US selling to EU customers, just like there are no laws stopping Amazon UK selling to EU customers. Amazon decide that they do not want to deal with EU customers on their US site; they might equally decide that they do not want to deal with NL customers on their UK site. They don't even have to be consistent about it!

          3. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Amazon US maybe - but was it a credit card issue, or was the seller unable or unwillingly to sell/ship to Europe? What circuit the card was? Never found issues using Visa or Mastercard.

            Amazon US accepted cards: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customerdisplay.html?nodeId=201132730 (hey, even China UnionPay!)

            In UK, looking at https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201895610 if you use Maestro cards need to be UK based. Just it looks outdated, weren't UK Switch/Maestro cards brought to the standard circuit, and Solo card retired?

            Amazon Germany rules are here: https://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201709160

            Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201547370

            If you want to pay cash because you feat to be tracked, better to find a physical shop...

            1. Pompous Git Silver badge

              "Amazon US maybe - but was it a credit card issue, or was the seller unable or unwillingly to sell/ship to Europe? What circuit the card was? Never found issues using Visa or Mastercard."
              I never have issues purchasing CDs, books, ebooks from Amazon with Mastercard. Just attempted to purchase Fat Freddy's Drop album as MP3 and was told I didn't have a suitable payment method. Same happens when I attempt to purchase software from Amazon.

              "If you want to pay cash because you feat to be tracked, better to find a physical shop..."
              You're fucking joking, right?

        2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Physical shops are all closed in the Netherlands? Here they still exist, if they have not an album but it's in catalog they'll order it

          They're bloody hard to find in Germany, I can tell you that and they a lot of them don't stock everything you might like.

          Regarding downloads: music's not quite as bad as films as, as long as you go with the big three (Apple, Amazon and Google) you can normally get the stuff you want (try getting Sleaford Mods on Sevenload…) but payment methods can be restricted (bank transfer is not supported by Google). Films can be a whole heap more difficult because Hollywood lurves to carve the world up into small bits in order to maximise revenues. This means there are lots of UK films and series than I cannot watch legally even if I do want to pay for them.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I'll stop pirating when capitalist exploitation ceases to exist.

      Corporate information commodities have zero intrinsic value, so that's the amount I'm willing to pay.

      1. DavCrav

        "Corporate information commodities have zero intrinsic value, so that's the amount I'm willing to pay."

        OK, this is obviously bullshit. It has a value to you, however small, otherwise you would not spend the time and electricity cost downloading an unlawful copy of it. And not all goods that we normally think of are physical, for example a repairman doesn't sell you a physical good, or even more esoterically, an insurance policy, especially one you never claim on.

        In general, most goods are worth more to people than their scrap value. I assume you won't pay more than about £150 for a car then?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Freetard here

          So I'm a freetard. I regularly download TV shows like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Westworld etc, from torrents or usenet.

          I also pay my TV license, full Sky subscription (allowing me access to all those shows), Spotify Premium for the household, TV license, the blank media tax....

          I don't download stuff because I'm some cheap bastard, I download stuff because I used to be a cheap bastard, and I know how much better an experience it is to watch downloaded shows than broadcast shows. They start when I want, they don't have 2 minutes of annoying intro about Volvos, and I don't have to type in a PIN because there may be boobies.

          1. Lost In Clouds of Data

            Re: Freetard here

            Another missed nuance; when you subscribe to SKY or HBO or whomever, they're granted you a right to STREAM the content. That is under their control. When the license to stream said content expires, or if, as a business decision they choose to no longer stream it, then your rights to stream it stop.

            When you purchase the DVDs & BluRays you're purchasing a license to watch that content for as long as you want, no matter what the status of the show is on the streaming platform. You have paid extra for that right (and for the physical media).

            When you torrent it you have decided to have you cake and eat it as well.

            BTW; don't paint me as some shill for the industry - I think DRM is an absolutely awful idea which does nothing whatsoever to stop the pirates, but does it stop folk from making a copy of a medium that, once damaged is invariably unwatchable (unlike a book for example which I can bend the spine, tear the cover, drop it in the bath and STILL read it). And I firmly believe we should, by law, be able to have backup copies. In addition I hate 'cloud' purchases because they can whip those away in the wink of an eye just because the studio (or other person) whims it.

            I also think the industry as a whole is as corrupt as all get out and totally anti-consumer and that, if they began to show more compassion and stopped with this war against us, they'd see a lot more folk legally sourcing material.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Freetard here

              As far as I know the UK still allows you to record these programs and watch them at a later date, and/or archive them for as long as you like, so SKY cannot take the right to watch the programme away from you.

              I used to use a DVD/Hard-drive PVR setup to transfer programmes from SKY onto DVD and then rip them to whatever format I wanted, long winded but served the purpose. Much easier to just press a button.

              1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                Re: Freetard here

                "I used to use a DVD/Hard-drive PVR setup to transfer programmes from SKY onto DVD and then rip them to whatever format I wanted, long winded but served the purpose. Much easier to just press a button."

                Virginmedia boxes allow you to copy programmes off them too, but not through the HDMI output so only stuff downscaled to SD. I can record and watch HD only if I keep the recordings on their rather small internal disks.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Same Freetard here

              when you subscribe to SKY or HBO or whomever, they're granted you a right to STREAM the content. [...]

              When you purchase the DVDs & BluRays you're purchasing a license to watch that content for as long as you want [...]

              When you torrent it you have decided to have you cake and eat it as well.

              I agree that that is what is written in legalese, however it is inaccurate because when talking about a performance, experiencing the performance is possessing it forever.

              I can accept this is not a legal argument :)

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Only human labour (including creative) has value. A CD pressing machine is a lump of labour, which transfers a sliver of value to each CD as it wears down. Digital copies require zero labour.

          Adding any amount of capital to creative labour is not enough to create property. Were I such inclined, I'd have no issue with downloading Pirates of the Caribbean 5, even though it cost $350,000,000 to make. And unfortunately I've already paid since the film industry is subsidized.

    3. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Oh, just buy it on CD and rip it. It'll probably be cheaper too.

      1. CAPS LOCK

        I could be mistaken, but...

        ... isn't ripping your CDs 'illegal' again?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I could be mistaken, but...

          "... isn't ripping your CDs 'illegal' again?"

          If you buy a new CD from amazon.co.uk then they usually offer a free rip to MP3 download for you as well. Not just the really big selling CDs either.

        2. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Re: I could be mistaken, but...

          He's in the Netherlands so I guess not.

          I don't think even the copyright lobby in the UK would be stupid enough to test that law.

        3. John Lilburne

          Re: I could be mistaken, but...

          Not according to Cary Sherman of the RIAA. There is a video on YT with him saying that they don't give a damn about ripping for personal use. I think its this one:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhIWvyKd7C0

    4. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      OTOH I recently bought my first download albums this year because it's finally got easy enough to get them without some form crippling DRM but it could still be easier (some kind of plugin for Chrome is still required) and there aren't really enough stores: I don't really like my purchasing habits being tracked.

      I pay my licence fee even though most of it gets spent on football that I never watch (here in Germany) and I only listen to the public news channels: music on the public channels is unfortunately predictably shit. If the legal market isn't serving demand correctly then the black market will.

      1. John Lilburne

        Ehm. CDs haven't had DRM since the mid 2000s.

    5. Planty Bronze badge
      FAIL

      And why did you believe you have the right to buy this music? Isn't it possible that for commercial reasons, it's not available on your country.?

      Why therefore do you then feel you did enough to warrant strealing it?

      I mean if its raining and I can't find an empty hotel room for the night, is it OK to break into someone's house, so I don't get wet????

  4. Dan 55 Silver badge

    So freetards will change their DNS and life will carry on

    I'm wondering how long it will be before an ISP gets taken to court because it allows customers to set their own DNS.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So freetards will change their DNS and life will carry on

      Unless they use the technology employed in Egypt and elsewhre, developed in western Europe, no doubt.

      They'll inspect plain HTTP headers and block HTTPS request based on the TLS server name requested by the browser.

      Changing the DNS server doesn't help you there.

      1. Mark 65

        Re: So freetards will change their DNS and life will carry on

        @AC: That just ends up as whackamole

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hi Andrew

    Andrew Orlowski frantically downvoting pirate posts.

    1. Fibbles

      Re: Hi Andrew

      Andrew and everyone who grew out of their teenage stick-it-to-the-man phase.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hi Andrew

        Patrick McGoohan never stopped fighting the man, and neither will I.

      2. Tom 38

        Re: Hi Andrew

        If you don't stick it to the man, you end up being the man. No-one wants to be the man, everyone else will just stick it to you. And then you will be stuck.

  6. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    Dangerous

    Not the issue of TPB as that is going to run and run.

    What is dangerous is the basic premise that ISPs should be made "guardians of public morality" for anyone with the money to get to court. ISPs generally won't fight for the public - they are in a low-profit business with customers who generally don't care about much but the price, and in many cases it will be in a different country / jurisdiction so it wont even be about the legality of a business. Also many ISPs are now in "content distribution" so have a biased view of what is in the public interest anyway.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    carrying out an "act of communication" when it links to torrent files

    ...and roads are used by terrorists, therefore.. And governments lie, therefore...

    Oh well, and who cares about the ruling anyway.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: carrying out an "act of communication" when it links to torrent files

      Last I knew, roads were not a money making entity, fully aware of which car is carrying a terrorist, removing non-terrorists and filtering off terrorists that were not willing to blow themselves up. Then indexing terrorists by type; knife man, shooter or suicide vest.

      Try again.

      1. tiggity Silver badge

        Re: carrying out an "act of communication" when it links to torrent files

        Roads not a money making entity?

        It's only a couple of days since I was last on a toll road *

        Lots of them in the UK

        *M6 Toll, not some itsy bitsy teeny obscure thing. There are plenty of other UK "major" toll roads e.g. Greater London has a few, Severn Bridge England / Wales route has a toll. etc

  8. Tony Paulazzo

    How long's the Pirate Bay been blocked in the UK, five years? Can still be gotten to with a minimum of effort. And I know Theresa May is attempting to destroy the internet but better men than her have tried, it was designed to withstand nuclear war for gosh' sake!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Nuclear proof myth

      ARPANET wasn't designed to survive a nuclear attack, or even be a global network.

      Lawyers are far more dangerous to humanity than nuclear weapons, and unfortunately nobody thought to harden the internet against that threat.

    2. Nolveys

      Theresa May is attempting to destroy the internet but better men than her have tried

      Manlier men too.

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Kaltern

    As mentioned earlier, the only real reason you see these huge efforts to shut down TPB and suchlike, is simply the lost revenue in TV advertising. Wasn't it Game of Thrones which has the honour of being the #1 most downloaded show?

    Oh and of course there's the music. Can't forget the music. All those lost sales. Every time someone hears a song they didn't pay for, a kitten's ears start to bleed. Apparently. UK and US broadcasting licensing laws are so draconian it's a wonder half the population isn't locked up.

    I think it was said best earlier. Make things available to all, at a reasonable price, and people will buy. Especially games and TV shows.

    On a side note, Movies, I can't see how they are ever meaningfully impacted by the really poor quality cams that people take on premiere day. It's all just a big con for lawyers to fill their boots.

    1. DontFeedTheTrolls
      Devil

      "Make things available to all, at a reasonable price, and people will buy. Especially games and TV shows."

      Playing Devils Advocate, given the massive sales of material I think you'll find the general public considers the current price to be reasonable. Everybody would like it to be cheaper, but while people are paying the price the industry can justify charging it.

      1. tiggity Silver badge

        @DontFeedTheTrolls I do not consider the prices reasonable, all it needs is enough people paying and industry does not care. In UK Sky is (IMHO as very much a casual / low consumption TV viewer) very expensive, but if you watch a lot of TV then it's value proposition will look better. Similarly individual album / movie purchases are eye wateringly expensive to me (unless you wait for several years). So my leisure spend tends to go mainly in other areas than video / music consumables (e.g. far higher spend on attending live music than buying recorded music )

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Copyright Material.

    Terrorist Material.

    Both illegal so why has Facebook not been shut down yet? Facebook actually hosts it and makes money from it in advertising revenues.

    1. Kiwi
      Mushroom

      Copyright Material.

      Terrorist Material.

      Both illegal so why has Facebook not been shut down yet? Facebook actually hosts it and makes money from it in advertising revenues.

      So does Google, via Youtube and cached pages (and google books, google docs etc etc etc). Quite sure I can find stuff "of interest to terrorists" just by looking up some basic how-to stuff on YT. And videos on transformer explosions can be very enlightening.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't help wondering how big a hit the BREIN account took when they bought this ruling, or maybe better by how much did the judges accounts expand.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anyone still using TPB?

    I thought you had to pass through several proxies to get it these days that it's easier to use other smaller sites that are well under the radar.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anyone still using TPB?

      Just a VPN will do. I'm sure that most of us here use those regularly.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Anyone still using TPB?

        Yes, yes it will, in fact, if you start a TPB search, and click in any field you will get a new tab or window pushing VPN's on you because your ISP knows who you are?!?

        1. Tom 38

          Re: Anyone still using TPB?

          Another option is to use a smaller ISP. In the UK, smaller ISPs are not subject to the blocking court orders that BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin and [I'm sure there is a 5th, its a "big 5", but I just can't recall] are. I'm with Hyperoptic, no blocking.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Anyone still using TPB?

            "I'm sure there is a 5th, its a "big 5"

            Vodafone?

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Anyone still using TPB?

            " In the UK, smaller ISPs are not subject to the blocking court orders [...]"

            I suspect Theresa May will legislate for every ISP doing the blocking.

          3. Martin-73 Silver badge

            Re: Anyone still using TPB?

            Indeed, one of the reasons I won't go with those bigger ISP's. (not a major reason, the main reason is their customer service is service in much the same way as bulls service cows).

    2. patrickstar

      Re: Anyone still using TPB?

      Or just use Tor... simple matter of starting the Tor Browser Bundle and doing everything exactly as usual. Or change your DNS servers. TPB seems to be hosted on CloudFlare so they can't just block the IP address without killing lots of other things as well.

      1. Mr Sceptical
        Thumb Up

        Re: Anyone still using TPB?

        Three words: Opera Turbo Mode.

        That is all.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    VPN?

    Is noone talking about a VPN in the hope noone else will notice and attempt to shut down the dutch VPN providers?

    Oooops

  15. DropBear

    Can we please just skip to the logical conclusion - make loaning a book / CD / DVD to anyone (or reading a newspaper in a way that would let anyone glance its other side) a disembowel-on-sight offence and be done with it once and for all...?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What an utter waste of everyone's time and effort! Media people, the courts, customers, everyone!

    Provide films/music/TV at a reasonable cost, and in the formats people actually want, and piracy will simply wither and die of it's own accord.

    It's simple market economics, sell anything at a high perceived cost, and piracy is a natural outcome, it doesn't matter what the product is.

    As long as that high cost perception exists, mass piracy will exist.

    Granted you might not (almost certainly not) get rid of piracy completely, but selling these things at prices that the mass majority would be happy with, and in the formats they want (i.e. no DRM, ability to play back where and when the customer wants), should reduce piracy down to the level of a rounding error.

    You can already see this happening, 5+ years ago most of my computer literate fiends, including myself, were pirating one thing or another, music, movies, PC/console games etc.

    Today, none of them are pirating music or games, and the only one that still downloads movies, already buys the Blu-rays, but wants them in MP4 or MKV format for his streaming media player, and simply can't be bothered to spend the time and effort ripping and encoding files himself on his cheap laptop (which would take hours), when it only takes 30 to 40 mins to download a high quality 1080p blueray rip, that's been reviewed by lots of people, and is better quality than a typical HD broadcast.

    If Blue-rays came with a PC friendly MP4 on the disk, or even as a separate download (the waste of space that is Ultraviolet doesn't count), that would be the end of the last pirate that I know of.

    Keep bringing out cheaper/better services, that provide the right formats and quality, and people will switch to those.

    Most people want to do the 'right thing', but the right services at the right costs, need to be in place first for that to happen.

    </rant-mode-off>

  17. adam payne

    So the ISPs will have to block access to the site again, more than likely a DNS block which is pointless and easy to get around.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Home taping is killing music

    It did kill music. Didn't it?

    1. Kaltern

      Re: Home taping is killing music

      It killed good music at least.

  19. Pompous Git Silver badge

    Purchasing CDs is too hard...

    A month ago purchased Fat Freddy's Drop CD from a UK online store. Three days later the vendor announced the CD had been returned by the postal service in pieces and their supplier was out of stock. Ordered from an Australian online vendor three weeks ago and still waiting for delivery. Should have taken five business days.

    A few years ago a major Australian CD retailer was advertising von Karajan's Wagner Ring Cycle on their website. Went to their store in Hobart and was told it was unavailable. When I asked why it was being advertised on their website if it was unavailable was told they had lots of stuff on their website that was unavailable. The Karl Böhm version was available at twice the price!

    Why can't I just purchase a license to "pirate" what I want to listen to?

    1. tiggity Silver badge

      Re: Purchasing CDs is too hard...

      Von Karajans Ring .. I have that on vinyl. My old classical LPs are a key reason I still have a turntable.

      1. Pompous Git Silver badge

        Re: Purchasing CDs is too hard...

        "My old classical LPs are a key reason I still have a turntable."
        I've transcribed most of my extensive vinyl collection and cleaned them up — declicked/descrackled they sound pretty good played from the HTPC. My favourite Wagner though is Jessye Norman singing the Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde (LSO). First CD I ever ordered through local music store when CDs were rare. Still waiting for it to arrive so just as well I purchased from CD Now in the US :-)

  20. Ramazan

    small hint: torrenting entirely via TOR works just fine with TCP trackers. If you use transparent TOR proxying, torrent client's traffic gets routed through TOR network too. This way you are completely anonymous, just don't forget to block outgoing non-TCP traffic.

  21. Kiwi

    So when do they go after...

    Even though these files are submitted by its users, and even though the copyrighted material that the torrent files download are not hosted by The Pirate Bay, the site still "plays an essential role in making those works available," said an official statement [PDF] from the court.

    c/f Google who DO host the material that people pirate through them (via youtube).

    When are they going to be named as a company that "infringes copyright".

    Wonder what internet speeds would be like today if it wasn't for torrents (though I suspect it's been porn that really was the speed driver!)

    El Reg can we get a hypocrite icon?

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: So when do they go after...

      Although it's pretty obvious at this stage that that the ruling is aimed purely at The Pirate Bay and similar sites that are almost elusively full of links to copyright infringing material, we all just know that the lawyers will be salivating at the gates over this ruling and picking it apart in the finest detail to see how they can re-purpose it for other means and apply it across the entire EU.

  22. RedCardinal

    Good luck with the blocking. I'm sure that will be just as "effective" as the existing blocking....

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WHO IS THE "GITLING"

    AND did he get his precious from harvey ??

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