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| Indian ISPs Unblock BitTorrent Sites After Appeal Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:22 AM PDT
Many of the country's leading Internet providers had blocked access to a wide range of file-sharing and streaming sites including Torrentz.eu, The Pirate Bay and Vimeo. It turned out that the ISPs in question were responding to a so-called “John Doe” court order under which they had to prevent users from sharing the movie Dhammu. Responding to this request, many ISPs saw no other option than to block a wide range of sites in their entirety. The court order wasn’t targeted at a specific site or ISP and gave the copyright holder carte blanche to demand broad blockades. The ISPs were seen as the bad guys by subscribers and “Anonymous” groups, but had no other option than to comply. Behind the scenes, however, a consortium of Internet providers decided to appeal the broad court order. These ISPs felt they were being “wrongfully vilified on the Internet” and argued that the broad blockades also prevented the public from accessing many legitimate files. The Madras High Court sided with the ISPs and ruled that the copyright holder can’t demand broad takedowns. The Indian news site Medianama has a copy of the order which specifically states that the copyright holder has to list the infringing URL, instead of demanding the shutoff of an entire website. "The order of interim injunction dated 25/04/2012 is hereby clarified that the interim injunction is granted only in respect of a particular URL where the infringing movie is kept and not in respect of the entire website. Further, the applicant is directed to inform about the particulars of URL where the interim movie is kept within 48 hours." The order came in late last week, and in the days that followed millions of Indians regained access to their favorite file-sharing sites. While the copyright holders are bound to be disappointed by the new restrictions, the new order prevents needless and broad censorship of legitimate files. To protect the rights of one movie, tens of thousands of independent artists saw their work being blocked, which can’t be good. The first John Doe order targeted at file-sharing sites was issued last summer, followed by a handful of others. Whether the Madras High Court ruling is the end of the catch-all John Doe orders has yet to be seen, but it’s clear that ISPs are now prepared to put up a fight. Source: Indian ISPs Unblock BitTorrent Sites After Appeal
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| Pirate Bay Disarms BT Blockade Within Minutes Posted: 19 Jun 2012 10:41 AM PDT
In addition to blocking domain names such as thepiratebay.se and thepiratebay.org, BT went further than expected. In response to earlier censorship attempts Pirate Bay added two new IP-addresses – 194.71.107.80 and 194.71.107.81 – but those are now also included in BT’s filter.
However, The Pirate Bay is not giving up so easily. In an immediate response the site has enabled two new IP-addresses (.82 and .83) which kicked in just minutes after BT’s block was implemented. And so the whack-a-mole continues. A Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak that they can continue adding new addresses for years to come. For them, it’s more a statement than anything else as there are already dozens of proxy sites that allow users to access The Pirate Bay just fine. The most frequently visited proxy in the UK, operated by the local Pirate party, is already among the top 600 sites in the UK. With the new block by BT it is expected to attract even more visitors. In addition, the Pirate Party is picking up a few new members in the process. The above shows once again that while these blockades may stop some people from accessing a site, the really determined have plenty of options. Also, of those who simply give up on accessing The Pirate Bay, many will simply switch to other torrent sites. The futility of these censorship efforts is an issue also being raised by Pirate Bay’s domain registrar. The .SE registrar states in a blog post that it would not seize the domain without a court order, adding that even if one was granted the site would simply switch to a new domain. The various anti-piracy groups, however, believe that censoring sites such as The Pirate Bay is better than doing nothing at all. “These developments are good for content creators, workers in the creative industries, and, ultimately, for consumers. As courts throughout Europe move to shut avenues of illicit content, they are helping to ensure that consumers will continue to have access to the compelling, legitimate, and virus-free content they want,” MPAA commented earlier. Interestingly, the MPAA and other copyright holders have yet to demand similar measures from US Internet providers. But maybe that’s coming up next. Source: Pirate Bay Disarms BT Blockade Within Minutes
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Last month millions of Indians were shaken up by what appeared to be a mass anti-piracy action from the Government. 
Following in the footsteps of 
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