The Open Rights Group has applied to have a procedural judge (a ‘Master’) in the UK High Court investigate their request for the court orders (injunctions), those related to website blocking, to be made public. Rights Holders use these when forcing big ISPs to censor specific websites (e.g. Fenopy, H33t and Kickass Torrents).
The move follows this week’s big news about hundreds of legal websites being incorrectly blocked because of an error by the Premier League (here). The ORG thus believes that “publication of the orders should benefit everyone” by encouraging “accountability, fewer errors and less confusion about what is happening“.
Jim Killock, ORG’s Executive Director, said:
“ISPs are often reluctant to share the orders with us, despite the fact they are ‘public documents’. Possibly they feel that copyright owners asking for the orders may find publication by an ISP provocative. This means we are obliged to ask the courts for the documents, in order that we can publish and analyse their contents.
Unfortunately, court officials so far have turned down ORG’s requests for copies of the blocking orders. They have done this because, they say, ‘judgment has not been entered’ or ‘service has not been acknowledged’.
We think court orders ought normally to be easily accessible to the public at all stages of litigation. At present the rules governing access to court documents only permit access to these orders as of right once the litigation has finished. The courts seem to be treating blocking injunctions as if they were like temporary injunctions made while proceedings are still going on. In fact the injunctions are the end of the section 97A process. Nothing more is intended to happen.”
In fairness the blocks are somewhat dynamic in that the site addresses (URLs) and IP numbers are constantly changing and thus need to be frequently updated (whack-a-mole style). On top of that there may be some concern that publication could merely serve to advertise any sites that the court wants censored, which is perhaps a moot point since nearly everybody seems to report the blocks.
The ORG now hopes to persuade the ‘Master’ that a section 97A blocking injunction should be “treated like any final judgment in court and be available to the public as of right” and if that fails then they’ll “ask the Master’s permission to have access to the orders“.
Comments are closed.
When is this madness going to stop. Blocking is ineffective at best and comes with many bad side effects.
For court ordered website blocks use: https://immunicity.org/
To sign a petition against the default adult filtering: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaigns/cameron-stop-sleepwalking
If there is a petition against the court ordered blocks please post it here, I would like to sign it (as would everyone else I have spoken to).
all these could use more support
Do not censor the Internet
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/53220
Change Internet Censorship
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46018
block the auto porn block
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43740
Thanks!
I wonder if the Open Rights Group would be so keen to see lists of subscribers to the pirate sites published? What about transparency regarding users of VPN s/w etc? Presumably they’d be happy for all this to be open too?
Subscribers aren’t trying to close the internet for their own financial gain! Neither do they engage in 100% ilegal activity. The same can’t be said for these Rights Holders.
It’s about keeping the internet open and our freedom free. Not lining the pockets of bullies because their too lazy to adjust to the market.
Blocking sites because there may be theft going on is like closing down shops because they may be targeted by shoplifters.
court documents are public so this sounds like rubbish to me.
Only if a “case” (that being the key) actually goes to court, for matters like this to be public an ISP would have to challenge a court order actually in court, rather than just obey by it.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/51746 Isn’t doing too bad