[Shaun]

A new court ruling has stated that filesharing site The Pirate Bay enables breaches of copyright laws.

Today (February 20) at the high court in London, Mr Justice Arnold ruled in favour of the record labels and music groups which want the site to be blocked in the UK, as it lets its users illegally download and share music.

The high court will decide in June if the website should be totally blocked to British internet service providers, however, today's ruling makes this outcome seem likely.

Of the ruling, chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry, Geoff Taylor, said, via The Guardian:

The high court today ruled that The Pirate Bay is illegal. The site defrauds musicians and causes huge damage to the music industry and wider creative industries... The ruling helps clarify the law on website blocking and we will now proceed with our application to have the site blocked to protect the UK's creative industries from further harm.


The Pirate Bay has 3.7 million UK users and 30 million users globally. In 2010, its founders had to pay a £4.1 million fine after being found guilty of enabling copyright infringement in Sweden.

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