Virgin Media and BT are amongst a number of UK internet service providers who will soon be blocking access to 21 torrent and file sharing websites for customers in the coming weeks.
A recent court ruling has ordered ISPs in the UK to revoke access to a number of websites which host copyrighted material illegally, including TorrentHound, MP3Skull and Torrentz. Both Virgin Media and BT have already confirmed that a block will be put in place within the next few weeks, so it could become harder for their respective customers to find and download digital content illegally very soon.
The crackdown on piracy has recently hit the UK hard, with ISPs forced to block access to The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt and Kickass Torrents in recent months. Those were major players in the file sharing game and now 21 further, smaller sites have also been added to the ban list. The full list is as follows:
337x, Abmp3, BeeMP3, BitSnoop, Bomb-Mp3, eMp3World, ExtraTorrent, FileCrop, FilesTube, Monova, Mp3Juices, Mp3lemon, Mp3Raid, Mp3skull, NewAlbumReleases, Rapidlibrary, TorrentCrazy, TorrentDownloads, TorrentHound, Torrentreactor, Torrentz.
Virgin Media issued a statement to confirm its plans to block the listed sites;
“We’ve received court orders requiring us to block a further 21 file-sharing sites found to be infringing on copyright. As a responsible ISP we obey court orders addressed to the company.”
BT has also confirmed its plans to block the site, whilst the likes of Sky, TalkTalk and other UK ISPs are yet to comment.
The list includes some very popular sites visited by thousands in the UK for procuring the latest albums, movies and TV shows without paying. We’ll undoubtedly see some re-appear under different guises and new sites will appear all the time, though it seems the powers that be are certainly starting to squash digital piracy to a certain extent here in the UK.
Are you sad to see some of these sites blocked? Will digital piracy ever be completely stopped? We’d love to hear your thoughts.