Censorship mission creep?

[andygates]

I'm hearing rumours that some UK ISPs (including BT Mobile) are blocking access to the Pirate Bay, claiming it's an IWF thing.  If they're true, this is a very bad thing.  Censoring is all vile, IMO, but censoring kiddy smut is at least defensible; blocking just TPB would be a triple-fail: extending IWF's mission from "stopping kiddy smut" to include "and protecting TimeWarnerSonyArseflakes' profit"; only blocking one torrent site out of hundreds; and failing to act on the torrents themselves (tip: google "my favourite telly show" filetype:torrent).

I'm hoping this is scuttlebutt that will blow over in a day or two.

Comments

[carldem.livejournal.com]

Only anecdotally (of course) I have bumped into many buyers, both occasional and collectors who have significantly reduced their buying because they can download most of what they want, and the few dollars they get in their wage packets only go so far at the store.

So I do feel sorry for A Random Artist but then they don't really get a good run from most labels anyway.

And I do recognise the massive investment in marketing, development both primary and secondary the labels put into the market.

But just as they have little protection against their product being ripped off, what protection do the consumers have against them over-charging, over-capitialising or just acting as cartels?

As in all things its just a balancing act.