TorrentFreak

• enigmax
• July 4, 2012
• 127
• bpi
• Print

Following their legal action against The Pirate Bay, which resulted in a High Court order against some of UK’s largest ISPs, the record labels of the BPI are now preparing to target other leading torrent sites. Framing discussions around having The Pirate Bay blocked, the group is polling its members and affiliated groups to find out if they have any connections to a range of torrent sites including Demonoid, ExtraTorrent, H33T and TorrentReactor.

In the wake of OFCOM’s publication of its Initial Obligations Code for the UK’s much-delayed Digital Economy Act, the government said it would remove a pair of controversial sections from the legislation.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said that following OFCOM’s findings that they would prove inefficient, sections 17 and 18 of the DEA – which relate to having copyright-infringing sites blocked at the ISP level – would be taken out completely.

In practical terms though, they are being removed because they are no longer needed. A 2011 court case against Usenet indexing site Newzbin2 by the MPA showed that existing legislation could be used to have a site blocked by ISPs in the UK. A similar process was repeated earlier this year by the BPI against infamous torrent site The Pirate Bay.

The question remained, however, whether the movie studios or record labels would come back for more, to cut off other sites using the same legal processes. Today, we may have the first signs of an answer.

If communication being sent out by music licensing group PPL to its members is any barometer, some pretty major torrent sites will soon come under the legal spotlight of the BPI.

The letter goes on to state that the action against The Pirate Bay was coordinated by the BPI but that the job still isn’t finished, and that “..other similar BitTorrent sites exist which provide facilities via which internet users can illegally download recorded music from, and illegally make it available to, other internet users.”

To this end, PPL is now checking among its members to make sure that none have licensed their music to any of these leading torrent sites:

- Extratorrent
- Demonoid
- Kickass Torrents
- H33T
- Torrent Reactor
- Fenopy

The PPL says it doesn’t expert to learn that members have licensed work but in the event they have (or have even been approached by the sites listed above) they should contact the BPI’s legal team by next Tuesday July 10th.

TorrentFreak contacted the BPI’s Director of Communications Adam Liversage for comment but at the time of publication were yet to receive a response.

In the wake of OFCOM’s publication of its Initial Obligations Code for the UK’s much-delayed Digital Economy Act, the government said it would remove a pair of controversial sections from...