Without coming down on either side of the piracy argument, we can all probably agree that the methods currently being used to combat piracy are ineffective at best. At worst, the whole industry appears to be absolutely set on trying to catch lightning in a bottle. One of the recent attempts saw music industry group BPI putting legal pressure on the UK Pirate Party to drop their proxy service to The Pirate Bay. After initially indicating that they’d fight the legal battle, the proxy was taken down. In response, similar parties in Argentina and Luxembourg have launched their own proxies.

To say the effort on the part of BPI has proven futile would be an understatement. Not to compare The Pirate Bay to a fictional terrorist organization, but the motto from Marvel’s HYDRA comes to mind: “If a head is cut off, two more will take its place.” Censorship of any kind, especially when it’s because of legal threats, is not something to which the Internet responds kindly.

Here’s what Sven Clement, head of Luxembourg’s Pirate Party, had to say about the group’s proxy:

Due to pressure from lobbyists, politicians all over Europe are incited to expand the censorship infrastructure to prevent freedom of expression, the right to information and the free exchange of culture. With our proxy, we help to circumvent the Internet censorship of European countries!

So, yeah. Squashing the UK Pirate Party’s proxy totally worked. Mission accomplished.

(via TorrentFreak)

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