Can Someone Explain When The Pirate Bay Was Actually Put On Trial In The UK?

from the due-process-is-such-a-simple-concept dept

Last week we wrote about the UK High Court ordering ISPs to start blocking The Pirate Bay just about the same time that UK musician Dan Bull had successfully used TPB as a promotional platform to launch him onto the UK charts. The first comment on that post, by Duke raised an interesting point: the court made this ruling despite the lack of any trial.

This isn't much of an expansion, Newzbin2 was ordered blocked last year, but it is a major step. The big problem here is the lack of any sort of trial. While there was a ruling back in February, declaring that the operators and users of The Pirate Bay were probably infringing copyright, the ISPs didn't try to make a case (for fear of massive costs orders), and the Pirate Bay was given no opportunity to argue anything. As for today's order, looking through the Court listings, there wasn't even a hearing, so it was probably all done through written applications.

This highlights how judicial oversight alone isn't enough (in a common law system) to ensure justice is done. Without an adversary to challenge the claimants (record companies), none of the possible defences, or issues (such as proportionality, anti-competitive practices, or negative consequences on people like Dan Bull) can be raised.

Whether the end result is right or not, it's not justice when a few companies can have a website blocked, with no one from the website or elsewhere in a position to challenge or question it.

This is a pretty key point that has received very little attention compared to the general order to block the site. I'm curious if folks in the UK can explain how this is defensible? While I recognize that free speech rights aren't as well respected in the UK, ordering ISPs to block a website without even allowing for any adversarial hearing seems like a pretty huge violation of basic concepts of due process.

Filed Under: censorship, dan bull, newzbin2, uk
Companies: the pirate bay