Internet censorship can be a very slippery slope. The latest example comes to us from the UK, where ISPs have started blocking The Promo Bay, a completely legal site launched by The Pirate Bay which has since been spun off to a separate domain.

Back in April 2012, the UK High Court ruled that ISPs must block The Pirate Bay. The same block list used to deny the British access to The Pirate Bay appears to be being used to block The Promo Bay domain as well, according to TorrentFreak:

The above message is similar to the one people get when they try to access The Pirate Bay, suggesting the two are linked. A closer look shows promobay.org is blocked, but www.promobay.org isn’t, which is different from previously blocked sites, further pointing to this being a big misunderstanding. The Promo Bay site is currently being blocked by UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs) including BE, BT, TalkTAlk, Virgin Media, and possibly others; please let us know if it’s blocked for you.

The Promo Bay doesn’t just have a separate domain name; it doesn’t even reside on The Pirate Bay’s servers. Most importantly, it has never hosted, or even linked to, copyright infringing material.

Let’s rewind to get the big picture. In January 2012, The Pirate Bay announced The Promo Bay, which first worked much like Google’s doodles: artists, cartoonists, comedians, filmmakers, musicians, and other content creators could replace TBP’s iconic pirate ship logo with their own. Unsurprisingly, the prime advertising spot quickly became very popular, as it has it let many promote their work to a potential audience of tens of millions.

More than 10,000 artists signed up in a few months, and so late last week, The Pirate Bay relaunched The Promo Bay at promobay.org, a dedicated site, where all promotions are permanently featured. The project has been outsourced to Aussie entrepreneur Will Dayble, according to TorrentFreak, and he is in charge of sifting through the thousands of submissions and picking the best ones to feature on The Pirate Bay site.

Furthermore, The Promo Bay also has plans to offer detailed statistics to artists so they can see where in the world promotion for their content is most effective. If the UK doesn’t wake up, British artists will have to use proxies and other tools to make submissions to The Promo Bay. This is a very bizarre series of events; we hope authorities realize the difference and rectify their mistake.

Image credit: Harpreet Padam

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