Orange, a UK-based Internet service provider (ISP), has denied accusations that it is blocking The Pirate Bay which is a leading BitTorrent sites facing many legal trials over allegation of promoting Internet-based piracy.
A blog report stated that more than a week ago, customers of Orange in France and UK can not access The Pirate Bay site.
The Internet company is one of the largest ISPs in Europe with over 10 million users from many countries including Switzerland, Spain, France, and UK. With this large number of users, media content (mostly video and music materials) consumers are greatly affected with the sites’ inaccessibility.
With this event, rumors had spread that the ISP has blocked the world’s largest Torrent tracker. But according to a spokesperson from Orange, the company had not blocked the BitTorrent site explaining that the inaccessibility is caused by technical glitch.
The spokesperson added that the Internet provider only blocks sites which promote child pornography and other subversive images which may harm children’s welfare, further explaining that his company’s regulations are always at par with Internet Watch Foundation (IFW).
In February, a Denmark court ordered Internet provider Tele2 to block users from accessing The Pirate Bay which filed for appeal but failed to overturn the court’s decision as the High Court upheld the initial ruling.
The Pirate Bay has been to a lot of controversies lately with many legal trials under its belt. This company has earned the record and movie industries’ ire which accused the site of promoting Internet-based piracy by allowing people to access and to illegally download copyrighted materials.