BPI requests proxy closure

Loz Kaye issued the following statement regarding the reports that the BPI had sent the Pirate Party UK a letter demanding the closure of the Pirate Party UK Pirate Bay Proxy:

Late this afternoon I received an email from Geoff Taylor at the BPI indicating that a letter had been sent to the Pirate Party, as well as an electronic copy of that letter which refers to our provision of a Pirate Bay Proxy. We have not yet received the letter by post.

As this letter seems to have been made available to the press, I would like to make it clear that we will respond to the BPI by the 6th of December as requested by Mr Taylor, as well as informing our members of the letter, its contents and our response.

The Pirate Party UK has hosted a proxy (tpb.pirateparty.org.uk), allowing people to connect to the Pirate Bay via Pirate Party servers, since April 2012, a little before the Pirate Bay was blocked by some UK ISPs after being issued with court orders. These court orders remain in place and some ISPs continue to prevent access to the Pirate Bay.

As we stated in May 2012, we provided the proxy as a tool for users on networks where the Pirate Bay is blocked through filtering, we will continue to do so as long as this situation continues.

The proxy continues to be a legitimate route for those affected by court orders issued to some (but not all) UK ISPs requiring the site to be blocked. Whilst some providers continue to allow access to the web in an unfiltered manner, others are limiting access to specific parts of the internet.

Loz Kaye
Party Leader
Pirate Party UK
@lozkaye

Contact:
press@pirateparty.org.uk
+44 (0) 161 987 7880