Three of the UK's biggest Internet Service Providers have today started blocking access to some of the web's most-used torrent websites.
Following a high court order issued last month, BT, Virgin Media and O2 will no longer allow their customers to visit or download from the popular KickAss Torrents, H33T and Fenopy websites.
The Register reports that KickAss Torrents is one of the top 50 most-visited websites in the UK, while the other two have followings in the hundreds of thousands using the service each day.
The ISPs have not banned the websites voluntarily, but did not fight a petition to the court from the British Photographic Industry, which spearheaded the fight in the interests of nine record labels.
Will it work? Probably not
The February 28 ruling, under Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, also requires Sky, EE and TalkTalk to follow suit, but those companies are yet to initiate the bans.
The three sites follow The Pirate Bay into the ISP abyss, following a court ruling in April 2012 forcing UK service.
However, just how successful these bans have been and will continue to be, remains to be seen.
Despite being blocked by all of the major UK IPs, Pirate Bay and its users have found ways to keep the site very much alive in the UK.
Via The Register
