Quote:
Originally Posted by afv011
When any site, illegal or not, can't be accessed without the site's owners having a chance to defend themselves against such action, their rights are indeed affected.
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They have no particular right to be accessible to servers located in the UK. If they want to operate their business in the UK, they may have to comply with UK interpretations of laws.
I am not in favor of the blocking strategy. However, that doesn't give TPB any rights in the UK; if they want to be represented in court, they can announce their willingness to comply with UK legal rulings. Without that, the UK has the right to say, "this content should not enter our borders," and choose any method legal by international law/trade agreements to enforce that. ISP blocking doesn't violate the Geneva conventions.
Whether or not the content "should" be illegal (whether or not they're hosting, or facilitating copyright infringement, or whatever other site-related aspects are of concern), once the UK courts have decided they are illegal, blocking access to them seems reasonable.
If UK citizens think their rights are being abridged or infringed by this, they can speak up about it; the UK is not a dictatorial fascist regime that blocks access to other countries' websites on a whim. But TPB certainly doesn't get a vote about it.