# Kolkata court orders ISPs to block music pirating sites



## kbar1 (Mar 16, 2012)

> ...
> A Kolkata court has ordered *all 387 Internet providers in the country* to block a list of 104 websites after the Indian Music Industry (IMI) filed suit against them. Indian Music Industry officials filed information with the court showing that each of the 104 sites hosted at least some infringing material; the judges ruled that site blocking was a proper way of dealing with the issue.
> ...
> IMI officials have insisted to local media that they are targeting only the worst offenders, saying that they began their process with 300 websites and eventually narrowed it down to 104 of the most flagrant infringers.
> ...



Source: [arstechnica.com].

My views:

While their anti-piracy stand (finally!) is commendable, the plans to target general file sharing sites, along with recent government proposals to censor Google and Facebook, will have serious implications regarding civil liberties, and (I think) can be considered as authoritarianism.

First of all, the site owners weren't informed. They weren't given a chance to respond to the court order, or to challenge it. This is NOT how the judiciary is supposed to work.

Does the Kolkata court have the authority to decide on pan-India matters?


----------



## Faun (Mar 16, 2012)

Retarded move.


----------



## Extreme Gamer (Mar 16, 2012)

kbar1 said:


> Does the Kolkata court have the authority to decide on pan-India matters?



High court (dont think so).  Local court (f*** no).

My ISP hasn't blocked   

Not that I care about bollywood music anyway.


----------



## coderunknown (Mar 16, 2012)

Extreme Gamer said:


> Not that I care about bollywood music anyway.



most file sharing sites (even torrents) share music illegally.


----------



## thetechfreak (Mar 16, 2012)

Like always it wont be implemented. Orders like these will be taken seriously only if High Court or Supreme Court makes.


----------



## paroh (Mar 17, 2012)

Actually blocking of site is other issue but DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) is more serious issue as it violates the privacy of a user.

Using DPI makes it "theoretically possible" to read the content of mail traffic

for more information of DPI
*howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57381346-285/how-to-use-vpn-to-defeat-deep-packet-inspection/


----------



## sukesh1090 (Mar 17, 2012)

if i have to say things should be like this.people have to download the song and if they like it they should buy them.but if you don't allow them to see if they like the song or not and force them to buy it and if they don't like it.then this is also a type of piracy.hell lot of people go to theaters when a movie is released and most of the times what they get to see is just BS.people simply spent their money for nothing.then this is also a type of piracy.


----------



## kbar1 (Mar 17, 2012)

paroh said:


> Actually blocking of site is other issue but DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) is more serious issue as it violates the privacy of a user.
> 
> Using DPI makes it "theoretically possible" to read the content of mail traffic




AFAIK, DPI is used by Iran and China (not great lovers of personal freedom), as well as by the U.S. for warrantless spying. It's also used by ISPs (in U.S./U.K.) for identifying and throttling bittorrent traffic. The most dangerous part is, it can also be used to _alter_ info for disinformation purposes. That is worse than full censorship, because you can't say which is true and which is not.


----------



## gopi_vbboy (Mar 17, 2012)

oh man so is bsnl goin to block all fs/torrent sites...


----------



## Renny (Mar 17, 2012)

Are the other members able to access _isohunt _from BSNL?


----------



## Extreme Gamer (Mar 17, 2012)

Sam said:


> most file sharing sites (even torrents) share music illegally.



And your point is?

I said I don't care- i.e. I don't listen to Bollywood music, so even if implemented, it doesn't affect me.


----------



## whitestar_999 (Mar 17, 2012)

*district courts can give verdict on any case irrespective of location/geographical nature of the case.there is no such rule that pan-India issues need supreme court/high court verdicts only.*in fact unless it is related to fundamental rights or specifically mentioned that appeal must be made in high court/supreme court(like administrative tribunal judgements)no case should be filed directly in supreme court/high court unless it is to challenge a lower court's verdict.

ISP's will simply challenge the verdict in kolkata HC/same district court & most probably it will be reversed just like delhi local/district court reversed its decision about google/facebook.


----------



## sumonpathak (Mar 17, 2012)

his point is that even the torrents can get blocked..



whitestar_999 said:


> *district courts can give verdict on any case irrespective of location/geographical nature of the case.there is no such rule that pan-India issues need supreme court/high court verdicts only.*in fact unless it is related to fundamental rights or specifically mentioned that appeal must be made in high court/supreme court(like administrative tribunal judgements)no case should be filed directly in supreme court/high court unless it is to challenge a lower court's verdict.
> 
> ISP's will simply challenge the verdict in kolkata HC/same district court & most probably it will be reversed just like delhi local/district court reversed its decision about google/facebook.



the decision is bound to get reversed...its totally against the FR


----------



## whitestar_999 (Mar 17, 2012)

this really isn't a fundamental rights issue.it is simply a "right/wrong way of implementing a law" issue.piracy is wrong but this measure to fight it is also not correct.

fundamental rights are in a different league altogether.issues such as internet restrictions are not even close to FR.


----------



## sumonpathak (Mar 17, 2012)

whitestar_999 said:


> this really isn't a fundamental rights issue.it is simply a "right/wrong way of implementing a law" issue.piracy is wrong but this measure to fight it is also not correct.
> 
> fundamental rights are in a different league altogether.issues such as internet restrictions are not even close to FR.



this is close to a FR issue...anywhoo...since the matter is still subjudis its meaningless to discuss it...
the measures to fight it are almost infringing the FR's.


----------



## Extreme Gamer (Mar 17, 2012)

We do not have the "fundamental right of freedom to access to all websites on the interwebs".


----------



## Krow (Mar 17, 2012)

Please stay on topic guys. It's a censorship issue.

I wonder why they are unable to crack down all illegal CD/DVD vendors spread across the country. Blocking websites will hardly solve the problem.


----------



## whitestar_999 (Mar 17, 2012)

> I wonder why they are unable to crack down all illegal CD/DVD vendors spread across the country. Blocking websites will hardly solve the problem.


it is not when a rickshaw puller rents a vcd/dvd/cd for Rs.10-15 that matters to companies but when someone running Radeon 6850/core i/phenom II/... downloads a movie/song with a monthly internet plan of ~500 & above.


----------



## kbar1 (Mar 17, 2012)

Its partially the fault of the content providers as well. They haven't promoted legal ways of downloading music aggressively. Heck, most people don't find anything wrong in downloading music from those shady sites. Also, the vast majority won't pay for music just like that. Do you think a rickshaw puller will pay 9 bucks (how is another topic altogether) for a single track? BTW, that's the price per track for most Bollywood numbers in Flipkart's Flyte service.

There are ways to get around this kind of censorship, as the source article pointed out. However, most of the "casual" pirates will be discouraged. Then, I think, Bollywood will hit a brick wall because not many people are listening to their "item songs" any more...


----------



## Anorion (Mar 17, 2012)

meh
physically downloading mp3s is soo old fashioned, something on its way out anyway, - its just a clumsy way of handling data.... if courts are suppressing it its a good thing
donno why ppl nid songs.pk when there are sites/services like saavn... as easy and you can get anything without the hassle of actually downloading it


----------



## pkkumarcool (Mar 17, 2012)

who cares about they block or not?there always other way proxies,dns etc etc.....the person who wants to download a file illegally can always download it.......
I can still browse Songs.pk even its blocked!


----------



## JojoTheDragon (Mar 17, 2012)

Crappy move. There is no stopping the illegal downloads.


----------



## bubusam13 (Mar 18, 2012)

Yaa, I know. We got a notice from Kolkata High Court.
GOOD NEWS and BAD NEWS !*

Its back. Its now songspk.pk

*conditions apply


----------



## Nipun (Mar 18, 2012)

Is songs.pk already blocked? If so, then MTNL doesn't know how to block


----------



## pkkumarcool (Mar 18, 2012)

Nipun said:


> Is songs.pk already blocked? If so, then MTNL doesn't know how to block



yep see this
www.telecomtalk.info/popular-music-download-site-is-blocked-in-india/88150/


----------



## Sujeet (Mar 18, 2012)

Court forgot that King of Kings The P2P is still up and ever will...its out of their reach to Take down Torrent system so they are satisfying themselves. by taking aim on Sites with FTP download system.lol...anyways songs.pk is heavily traffic - ed site ....they blocked one name songs.pk ..it came back as songspk.pk...lol...it wont stop.


----------



## kbar1 (Mar 18, 2012)

^^ Stringent enforcement of DPI means they can identify (and block) bittorrent and other P2P protocols, regardless of whether you're downloading Ubuntu or the latest Hollywood flick.


----------



## rezurect007 (Mar 18, 2012)

> The Indian Music Industry, a consortium of 142 music companies, announced today that it has obtained orders from the Calcutta High Court directing all Internet Service Providers (387 in all) to block access to 104 music sites from India. We’ve obtained a list of sites that the IMI wants blocked:
> 
> 1. 22beats.com
> 2. absongs.com
> ...



Songspk.pk haha....


----------



## paroh (Mar 22, 2012)

"deep packet inspection," a powerful and potentially intrusive technology that can read and analyze "packets" of data that travel across the internet. The technology can be used to track internet users, search for and reconstruct email messages that have been broken up into data packets, block certain types of traffic and even deliver altered web pages to users.


----------



## amjath (Mar 22, 2012)

I care only about thepiratebay and it is also going to host on flying drones so don't care much on this


----------



## Sujeet (Mar 22, 2012)

kbar1 said:


> ^^ Stringent enforcement of DPI means they can identify (and block) bittorrent and other P2P protocols, regardless of whether you're downloading Ubuntu or the latest Hollywood flick.



..Thats something SOPA/PIPA tried to do and was kicked on a$$ by What we know as  wikipedia ,google and likes.


----------



## CommanderShawnzer (Mar 22, 2012)

this "block" thing is useless.it has only opened avenues for palm-greasing in bengal
if those piracy sites want thier business to continue they will have to grease some palms in the judiciary and ISP's
that's how india works.every new rule  is tied to making a source of "extra income"
but the internet cannot be controlled......
not by Uncle Sam not by anyone


----------



## Anorion (Mar 24, 2012)

Here we go again confusing privacy with piracy even the news channels are at it


----------

