The London High Court has ordered that major UK Internet service providers (ISPs) block access to three specific torrent sites that allegedly offer links to pirated material.
As it does in North America and the Nordic region, Netflix now publishes internet service provider (ISP) rankings for the United Kingdom and Ireland, effectively scoring each provider's relative ability to offer bandwidth-intensive services.
Before the end of January Ireland will have enacted its own SOPA-style legislation - without discussion or vote in the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament - allowing parts of the internet deemed to aid piracy or infringe copyright to be censored from the Irish public.
Threatened by legal action from EMI Ireland, the Irish Government has agreed to publish an order next month, "plugging a gap" in Irish copyright law and effectively allowing record companies to restrict access to whole websites in Ireland as they please.
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte, along with colleague Fergus O’Dowd, convened a high level task force yesterday charged will formulating policies on how best to roll-out ubiquitous high speed broadband to all areas of Ireland.