UK Internet Service Providers Are Blocking Streaming Sites

TV freeloaders across the UK last night found themselves in the despair-inducing situation of being unable to catch up on the latest episode of their favourite shows, as some of the country’s largest internet service providers put more court-ordered website blocks into effect.

TorrentFreak reported that the torrent and streaming sites YIFY-Torrents, PrimeWire, Vodly, WatchFreeMovies, and Project Free TV, have been blocked by six major UK providers: BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk. If you try to access those sites now, you’ll see a message like this one from Virgin Media:

If you do still have access and you use one of the ISPs above, be warned that the block should be in effect across the board by the end of November—and it won’t stop there.

In accordance with a High Court order earlier this month, access to another two sites, SolarMovie and Tubeplus, will be restricted by December. What’s unusual about this latest action is that streaming sites, as opposed to downloading sites, are being targeted. According to a report by IT Pro Portal, Lord Justice Arnold ruled the ISPs must block access to the unlicensed streaming sites with a verdict that stated, “Viewed from the perspective of the user, the websites do in a very real sense make the content available to the public.”

The UK’s Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) defines illegal streaming as that which “allows you to view unauthorised copyrighted content on demand without downloading the illegal file,” and adds that, “Both hosting unauthorised content and providing links to unauthorised content is illegal.”

The British ISPs have already had to block access to 25 other sites deemed to infringe copyright, most notably including the infamous Pirate Bay. They put up a bit of resistance at first, and refused to voluntarily prevent their customers from viewing the content; but when a court order was brought, they had little choice but to comply. It’s the latest hit to internet freedom in the UK, and it’s undoubtedly a sign of things to come. With the entertainment industry bearing down and ISPs apparently unwilling to really fight the cause, you can expect to see more and more sites added to the blacklist.

That said, there’s a limit to what targeting streaming sites can do. As anyone who’s tried to look for free content online can attest to, it’s really not that difficult, because there are just so many sites out there. And as we’ve seen before with illegal music downloading and darknet drug bazaars, as soon as you take one down, another pops up. It’s a game of whack-a-mole that might temporarily frustrate site owners and users, but won’t defeat them.

Even without switching to new sites, it’s pretty easy to circumvent this kind of block. Remember, the websites themselves haven’t been taken down; they’ve just had access blocked by your provider. It's hardly a secret that you can get around that with the many VPN and proxy services out there—TorrentFreak reported last week that Pirate Bay proxy PirateProxy.se is the 241st most popular site in Britain.

It’s clear people aren’t about to be dissuaded from streaming and downloading, and  the ISPs caught up in the action seem to understand this. After it was forced to block the Pirate Bay earlier this year, Virgin Media told the BBC, "As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company but strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price.”

That’s a fair comment; with so few options available to users looking to watch TV and films online, it’s no surprise that users turn to unauthorised sites. If it’s not on a legitimate TV catch-up channel or an authorised service like Netflix, what’s a generation that’s increasingly ditching their TV sets for laptops to do?