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Australian govt. will think about blocking sites like Pirate Bay at the ISP level

Heres an interesting news bit for those down under.


The assault on popular torrent sites like The Pirate Bay continues this week, and if recent reports are any indication, the next blow might come from Australia.


TorrentFreak reports that, in its efforts to combat piracy and the consumption of content illegally, the Australian government may spend at least part of this week considering a pair of measures that are designed to do just that. One contains an approach where warning letters are sent to accused file sharers. The second (and more drastic) measure is one that would allow for Internet Service Providers, or ISPs, to block users from accessing sites like The Pirate Bay altogether.


The letter-writing strategy is already employed in a few places around the world, including the U.S., South Korea, and France. However, it’s unclear how effective that approach is when it comes to curbing piracy.


One of the reasons why piracy is so prevalent in Australia is due to the fact that it can take months or years before new media debuts in Australia, TorrentFreak states. To bridge this availability gap, a sizable number of Australian citizens have resorted to piracy.


So if sending letters to pirates doesn’t work, will banning sites work as intended? Perhaps not. A sizable portion of Australian citizens are already well versed when it comes to using VPNs and proxy servers, which could be employed to access blocked sites.


It’ll be interesting to see how the Australian government rules and whether they decide to employ either of the anti-piracy strategies that are on the table.


What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

DT