UK High Court Recognizes That Defamation Standard Should Be Lowered For Online Forums

Italy Tries, Fails To Ban The Pirate Bay

from the how-many-examples-do-you-need? dept

Mon, Aug 11th 2008 7:31am — Mike Masnick

A few years back, with the help of some pressure from US gov't officials, Sweden tried to shut down The Pirate Bay. It worked for about a day until the site was back up. And, of course, the resulting publicity from the failed raid only brought The Pirate Bay much more attention. Earlier this year, a court in Denmark tried to get major ISPs to block access to the Pirate Bay. And, once again, all that really did was generate much more interest in the site.

At some point, you might think that officials would recognize that every time they try to shut down or block The Pirate Bay, it just ends up getting the site that much more traffic. But it looks like we still have a long way to go until that day comes. A prosecutor in Italy has told ISPs that they need to start blocking access to The Pirate Bay. Of course, such bans are totally ineffective, as The Pirate Bay has already set up routes around the blocks. So, nice work Italy. You've now helped to promote The Pirate Bay by trying to "ban" access to it.

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Filed Under: ban, isps, italy
Companies: pirate bay

21 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2008 @ 7:40am

Why do Italians . . .
Hate Gypsies and Pirates?
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J K, 11 Aug 2008 @ 7:55am

TPB
Go Pirates!! Take down these M**F**ers!
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2008 @ 8:06am

Maybe the governments *are* aware of the promotional effect, and are doing it to promote them whilst seemingly staying in the boundries of the law.

Using the system AGAINST the system. REVOLUTION!
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- Michael Whitetail, 11 Aug 2008 @ 8:14am
  
  Re:
  Maybe the governments *are* aware of the promotional effect, and are doing it to promote them whilst seemingly staying in the boundries of the law.
  
  Using the system AGAINST the system. REVOLUTION!
  
  Um
  1) Use the System against the system
  2) ?????
  3) Profit! ... errr, REVOLUTION!
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- JS Beckerist, 11 Aug 2008 @ 8:24am
  
  My belief:
  I think you're pretty close, except it's self-regulating (and therefore responsible) governments that tend to do this. The **AA's of the world are trying to get the governments to ban things that might hurt their business model (with money, ironically.) The politicians of the world that DON'T get campaign contributions from said organizations will then put the cap on the **AA agenda. Often citing "maintenance of privacy" as the primary reason for doing so. The same government might have two different agendas, it just depends on who controls what.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2008 @ 11:42am
    
    Re: My belief:
    Yes, it's the **Agencies/Associations of America around the world that are doing this... Especially the ones not in America
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John Doe, 11 Aug 2008 @ 8:16am

just my two cents.
Or, maybe they just don't care about the site. The politicans probibly just want to appear to be doing somthing.
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- Jason, 11 Aug 2008 @ 11:23am
  
  Re: just my two cents.
  Exactly.
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Dave, 11 Aug 2008 @ 8:25am

I think it's more of a "Not in my town" philosophy for the prosecutors. More traffic or not, they just want the Pirate Bay out of their jurisdiction.
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It Could Happen, 11 Aug 2008 @ 8:34am

You Never Know
Italy may need money, business supporting government, government returning the favor. i'd like to think the Italian governments are business oriented, and would have the shrewdness to do that.

vive la rivoluzione!!!
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DeKLiNe0fMan, 11 Aug 2008 @ 8:52am

Forget About It
Piracy is already established, thanks to capitalist greed. There is no stopping it now it can't be undone. And much like the pathetic war on drugs. The money wasted on this and the over crowding of jails will prove that pride is the real problem here and dangerous criminals are laughing at us.
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be free, 11 Aug 2008 @ 9:16am

Yeah, and Italy is such a beacon of justice ...
... and righteousness. Look, I love Italy , lived there as a kid and early teen, bit it's one of the most corrupt European countries, especially the south. It's more similar to a 3rd World nation in some aspects. In order for my parents to acquire their work permits, they had to bribe two different officials, and their papers were completely in order and everything was legal. I twould have worked without the bribes but what could have taken a couple of days turned into a 15 minute process and two stamps later they were good. My parents quickly learned the importance of owning a gun for protection, and ended up having to make a deal with the local Mafia in order to do business. Nothing scary, just bring tourists to certain restaurants. In return, we were completely protected, and "our" tourists were never hassled. This was an ongoing mutually beneficial long term relationship. In Napoli, close to where we lived, we encountered the renowned "market of the thieves" which my parent turned into a sightseeing destination because it was so unusual (and cheap :). Talk about pirates, and how certain elements of crime was accepted in society and its people, including tourists. But Pirate Bay is too much for them huh....
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Matt, 11 Aug 2008 @ 9:16am

Welcome to the New Italy
I've been to the Pirate Bay site six times since I started reading this article...this site is great! ;)

When I was in Italy a couple years back, they were saying that Italy was trying making an effort to reduce graft in government and business. Traditionally they've had a lot of problems with mafia and business interests controlling or ignoring legislation, while politicians in some cases participated in the scandal.

If anything, they're probably using the Pirate Bay case to draw attention to their legal efforts; which is good for the country as well as its global image.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2008 @ 10:31am

All this popularity
And no grounds for it.

How many hits per minute does the pirate bay have to receive before the web developers behind it get off their lazy asses and actually make the site useful? The pirate bay only has a good name, beyond that it's probably the worst torrent tracker online even if it's tracking the most torrents.
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Norm, 11 Aug 2008 @ 11:11am

So
Should the Gov't not prosecute rape, murder and robbery as it will also "publicize" it?

Pirate Bay is already popular for crying out loud, thus the attempt to block it.
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Claes, 11 Aug 2008 @ 11:24am

@Norm:
Can't you see the difference between prosecuting crimes of violence and blocking access to an internet search engine?
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woot, 11 Aug 2008 @ 12:11pm

I'll have to check it out
All this hoopla about TPB, I guess I'll have to head over and try the site out.

Thanks for the heads up!
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Tony, 11 Aug 2008 @ 1:08pm

The Way I See It is...
P2P has been around for long while, and well it just shows by it's daily growth that people will aways take the free way if possible ,I don't say this mean ,I have been using torrents for 6yr's myself....It's just our nature as humans we hunt and gather in all we do ,to get though a day......it's been that way since, we were 2 hair's away from being baboon's our self's.....we don't feel it as stealing , were just taking what other's offer....and if they offer it faster or cheaper than the retailers then well take it ,but buy their growth torrent sites are here to stay that's for sure and pirate bay is one of the best but like other site's a few evel doer's do vist all sites and they do drop virus packed stuff , most don't by far but still have a good A/V is the best bet
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Norm, 11 Aug 2008 @ 1:56pm

@Claes - Yes!
Can't you see the bogus point of the argument in this article? Did you read the article?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2008 @ 3:53pm

Arrrrr
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freenet, 13 Aug 2008 @ 2:32pm

Fascist governments lIKE FRANCE and ITALY
Fascist governments lIKE FRANCE and ITALY exemplified the reliance on chains of patronage and clientage with its associated corruption typical of Italian Republic and French Republic society.
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