One of the ISPs targeted by the major recording labels in the latest Pirate Bay blocking case says it will not voluntarily censor the website. Irish ISP UPC, the second largest in the country, says that service providers should not be the ones to decide what subscribers can and cannot consume. As a result, the so-called "Irish SOPA" legislation introduced last year will soon receive its first test at the Commercial Court.

In common with many of their counterparts around Europe, six ISPs in Ireland are currently under fire for providing access to The Pirate Bay, the world’s most controversial file-sharing site.

The Internet service providers – UPC, Imagine, Vodafone, Digiweb, Hutchison 3G and Telefonica O2 – are being targeted by IRMA, the Irish Recorded Music Association.

The group, which represents the major recording labels including EMI, Sony, Warner and Universal, wants ISPs to block subscriber access to TPB. IRMA’s application, currently before the Commercial Court, is supported by other rightsholder groups including the MPA, the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency and Games Ireland.

Last week the labels argued that as many as 200,000 Irish ISP users access TPB every month, causing collective losses to the labels of around 20 million euros a year. At the same time, they argued, TPB generates more than $30 million per year in advertising revenues.

The labels are seeking court orders which would force the ISPs to disable access to The Pirate Bay within 30 days. Clarity was also sought on whether the labels should have to return to court with a new application should The Pirate Bay change domain or switch IP addresses.

While none of the targeted ISPs expressed outright opposition to the application, UPC says that its previous stance of not cooperating voluntarily with the labels (it previously declined IRMA’s request in pre-litigation correspondence) remains the same.

“UPC’s position remains unchanged. Piracy in general is a collective and industry wide concern. From a UPC perspective, we firmly believe people should pay for content they consume,” the ISP said in a statement.

“As an industry, Pay-TV has pioneered encryption technology to prevent piracy of the TV signal. However, we have no visibility as to what users do online. Our position is that ISPs should not, on a voluntary basis, decide what can or should be consumed by users.”

The stance of UPC is important, not least since the blocking of The Pirate Bay is likely to be the tip of the iceberg. During an earlier hearing the labels revealed they have a list of some 260 “objectionable” websites to be targeted in future should this effort succeed.

“It is the government or the courts who are the appropriate body to make such determinations and we await Judge McGovern’s decision in this regard,” UPC concludes.

This latest action is the first of its kind since Ireland’s signing into law of the European Union (Copyright and Related Rights) Regulations 2012. Dubbed “the Irish SOPA“, the legislation should make it easier for rightsholders to have sites such as The Pirate Bay blocked by court order.