Pirating movies in days of old required actually buying them out of the car boots of dodgy vendors, digging into the trunk for the latest title while keeping one shifty eye on your surroundings.

Now of course you can do your illicit dealings from the comfort of your own home, sites like The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents affording us the luxury of a few dodgy clicks to download new movies and series.

As the practice becomes more common an increasing number of internet service providers (ISPs) around the world are blocking their users from accessing these sites. In South Africa MultiChoice are kicking up a stink and advertising for the position of ‘Cyber Piracy Investigator’, claiming moral reasoning when speaking to MyBroadband:

MultiChoice said it “supports the protection of copyright” and was “committed to upholding the laws and regulations of the Copyright Act”, following the posting of the job advert.

So what do South Africa’s most well-known ISPs have to say about potentially blacklisting access to piracy sites and use of BitTorrent programs?

Web Africa – “We firmly believe that ISPs should not be required to police the Internet,” said Webafrica.

“Our core function is provide Internet access, therefore the responsibility for sensible use is in the consumer’s hands.”

MWEB – the onus should not lie with ISPs to police the Internet, but it added that it will operate within the confines of the law in South Africa.

“There is no legal obligation for us to [block torrents on our network] currently,” said MWEB.

Afrihost – “More services are looking at P2P as a way to spread content quickly and minimise data costs,” the ISP said.

“P2P will continue to play an important role in general Internet behaviour.”

It went on to agree with the sentiment of the other ISPs, saying it is not an ISP’s mandate to control and police what their clients choose to do online.

Vodacom – its business practice is to not block any type of traffic – unless requested by the subscriber, like with its opt-in Adult Content Management Service, or when instructed via relevant legal processes.

Like Cell C, Vodacom said it will abide by the law.

“Vodacom will take its guidance from the relevant legal and regulatory bodies as and when they publish regulation on the matter,” it said.

Looks like you’re fine to continue on your merry way for now. I can’t say I’m surprised by our local ISPs, to block access to these sites would only redirect a massive amount of their client base to other providers who haven’t done so.

Sorry MultiChoice, looks like piracy is here to stay for the time being at least.

[source:mybroadband]