Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Internet Piracy (197 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Internet Piracy

800 Virgin Media Customers Pursued by Internet Porn Piracy Lawyers

24th October, 2014 (2 Comments)

The threat of “speculative invoicing” appears to have re-emerged in the United Kingdom after a long running, but not widely reported, battle between Virgin Media and London law firm Wagner & Co resulted in the UK cable operator being forced to release the details of 800 customers whom are alleged to have shared “illegal” copyright content online.

The Cost of Getting UK ISPs to Block a Website via Court Order

22nd October, 2014 (6 Comments)

How much does it cost to block a website via court order in the United Kingdom? According to the solicitor acting for Richemont, Simon Baggs of Wiggin LLP, the cost of forcing ISPs to block a website via the court process is roughly £14,000 per site. But that’s not the only cost involved and consumers could ultimately end up paying the price.

UK High Court Forces Big ISPs to Block Websites for Trade Mark Abuse

17th October, 2014 (7 Comments)

The High Court of Justice in London has today ruled on a case that concerned the abuse of commercial Trade Marks. Crucially the outcome means that several of the United Kingdom’s largest broadband ISPs (BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, EE and TalkTalk) can now also be forced to block websites that abuse company trademarks / logos, such as by dealing in counterfeit goods.

Luxury Goods Maker Wants ISPs to Block Websites for Trade Mark Abuse

26th September, 2014 (5 Comments)

Broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom could soon be forced to block websites that abuse commercial Trade Marks, assuming the owner of luxury brands including Cartier and Mont Blanc (Compagnie Financière Richemont SA) gets their way in a new court case, which Internet providers and the Open Rights Groups (ORG) are fighting.

UPDATE TalkTalk Business Sends USA Piracy Warning Notice to UK Customer

18th August, 2014 (12 Comments)

Internet provider TalkTalk Business has allegedly taken the seemingly unusual decision to forward a USA sourced copyright infringement notice from Warner Bros., which concerns a suspected attempt to share the recent Godzilla movie over P2P (BitTorrent), to a customer via its sibling ISP Opal Solution.

UPDATE UK ISPs Agree Voluntary Internet Piracy Warning Letters Scheme

19th July, 2014 (4 Comments)

The Government, Rights Holders and four of the country’s largest broadband ISPs, including Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk and Sky Broadband, have resolved their differences and announced the launch of a new “education programme” to help combat Internet piracy (copyright infringement) by sending warning letters to customers suspected of sharing “illegal” copyright content via File Sharing (P2P) networks.

The Pirate Bay Internet Traffic Grows Despite ISP Blocking

18th July, 2014 (8 Comments)

Can skin-deep website blocking measures by broadband ISPs really help to curb Internet piracy (copyright infringement)? According to the latest traffic data from one of the most notorious and widely blocked sites of all, The Pirate Bay, visitor numbers have climbed despite many ISPs across several major countries censoring access.

UK ISP Zen Internet Shuns Proposal for Voluntary P2P Piracy Warning Letters

19th May, 2014 (2 Comments)

The Regulatory Manager for UK ISP Zen Internet, Gary Hough, has criticised the Government’s efforts to introduce a new Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (VCAP) of Internet piracy warning letters. Zen noted the distinct lack of engagement with the wider ISP industry and said that they currently had no intention of signing up to such a scheme.

UPDATE ISPs Set to Agree Weakened Voluntary Internet Piracy Warning Letters

9th May, 2014 (15 Comments)

A new report claims that the United Kingdom’s four largest home broadband ISPs (BT, TalkTalk, Sky Broadband and Virgin Media) are expected to imminently agree a controversial new Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme of Internet piracy warning letters with the Motion Picture Association and British Phonographic Industry.

RightsCorp Threatens More Bullying Piracy Letters for UK Internet Users

7th May, 2014 (12 Comments)

The shadow of “speculative invoicing” could soon return to our shores after the US-based copyright enforcement agency RightsCorp, which monitors public P2P File Sharing traffic for “illegal” activity before pursuing related broadband ISP customers with financial settlement demands, confirmed that that they are “investigating a launch in Europe” and had received a “great reception” from interested groups in the United Kingdom.

European Court of Justice Says ISPs Must Block Piracy Websites

27th March, 2014 (8 Comments)

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has today ruled that Internet Service Providers (ISP) across the EU can now be ordered to block their customers from being able to access a copyright-infringing website (e.g. The Pirate Bay). But national courts will still have the final say.

Piracy Website Blocks by UK ISPs Trigger 20 Percent Fall in P2P Traffic

24th March, 2014 (12 Comments)

The annual Digital Music Report 2014 from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has claimed that the website blocking measures implemented by ISPs have become a “widely-accepted and effective way of curbing piracy online“, especially in Europe and the UK where BitTorrent (P2P) file sharing traffic is said to have fallen.

UK ISPs Could Implement Voluntary Piracy Warning Letters by End of 2014

20th March, 2014 (5 Comments)

The Government’s Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey, has told a recent Westminster Hall debate that their efforts to introduce a controversial Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (VCAP) of Internet piracy warning letters, which would hit customers of the UKs largest broadband ISPs, “may be up and running before the end of the year“.

UK Court Orders Big ISPs to Block Megashare, Viooz, Watch32 and Zmovie

11th March, 2014 (39 Comments)

A group of Hollywood movie studios have successfully won a case in London’s High Court that will require all of the country’s major broadband ISPs to block their customers from accessing the following websites – Megashare, Viooz, Watch32 and Zmovie. All were found to be facilitating Internet copyright infringement (piracy).

Common Sense as EU Court Moves to Protect Free Use of Website Links

13th February, 2014 (2 Comments)

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that providing a link (hyperlinks) between one Internet website and another does not equate to copyright infringement, which is a victory for common sense. Indeed any ruling in the opposite direction would have been almost unworkable to enforce. But there is a caveat in the ruling.

UK MPs Demand Prison Sentences for Repeat Internet Pirates

24th January, 2014 (17 Comments)

A debate on the United Kingdom’s Intellectual Property Bill has caused controversy after several MPs and the Prime Minister’s own Intellectual Property Advisor, Mike Weatherley (Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade), backed calls for persistent pirates to lose their “Internet rights” and suffer “some sort of custodial sentence“.

UPDATE PlusNet to Replace McAfee Security with Network Level Filtering

22nd January, 2014 (7 Comments)

It’s arguably the least surprising development of the year. Broadband ISP PlusNet has confirmed that it intends to follow BT’s example (parent company) and launch their own network-level Internet filter to block (censorship) adult and piracy websites, which will most likely replace its bundled McAfee security solution.