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UK Court orders blocking of more "illegal" websites

Following the decision by the High Court of the UK last year to block The Pirate Bay and its known alternative addresses, the court in the UK has added three more sites to the list and are requiring a number of "major" ISPs to block them henceforth.

The BBC reports that the ISPs will be required to stop their users from accessing Kickass Torrents, H33T and Fenopy.

Music industry group the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said the sites infringed copyright on a "significant scale".

Opponents to the decision have long argued that such decisions have little effect, and in some cases such as the blocking of The Pirate Bay last year, can actually have the opposite effect where traffic not only returned to normal, but actually increased after the ruling.

Speaking after Thursdays decision BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said:

The growth of digital music in the UK is held back by a raft of illegal businesses commercially exploiting music online without permission.

Blocking illegal sites helps ensure that the legal digital market can grow and labels can continue to sign and develop new talent.

The BBC report also pointed out that a market research firm NPD has suggested that there had been a large reduction in the number of users illegally downloading music, with users instead favouring legal options like streaming site Spotify. However, their report did fail to mention that services like Spotify has only become a viable legal option since recently and has still yet to roll out in other countries.

Source: BBC

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