Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer
As I said, even if you don't like The Pirate Bay, this sets a worrisome precedent in the UK for site blocking with seemingly little consideration about the harm blocking causes to the public.
Maybe a more apt analogy than petty theft would be the police shutting down a printing press that was printing pro-piracy pamphlets, as well as other material.
Popular speech, like the websites that you describe above rarely need special protection under the law; unpopular speech, like that contained on The Pirate Bay, is where consideration of free speech is actually necessary.
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Exactly, Oppressive censorship usually always starts with those that the majority does not like / does not agree with. Once the framework is in place to start blocking / censoring anyone / anything, we need to start worrying about where this is going to ultimately end up.
I know of several independent musicians and filmmakers whose ability to reach out to, and create new fan-bases would be irreparably harmed by the blocking of TPB in the UK. Added to the fact that almost everyone agrees that this will do little to curb piracy, we need to start asking what are the real reasons why they are doing this. Is it really to stop piracy, or is it to stop any method of competition / distribution that doesn't pass through the established industries?