Definition of Slippery Slope

BT are being forced to block access to specific piracy websites, lucky that they have the technology hanging around for the IWF watch-list then?

BT are being forced to block access to a piracy site.

This will no doubt use the BT Cleanfeed infrastructure used for the IWF. You either have something clever that proxies everything, or your redirect the blacklisted IPs to a filtering proxy. The former is expensive, the latter breaks wikipedia anonymous updates.

Anyway, I wrote about this point that the Aussie No Clean Feed were making made a while back. Given politicians and the judiciary a toolkit that can be applied generally, and they will.

This raises some depressing questions:

  • How long until this ruling applies to other ISPs?
  • How long until the IWF watch-list becomes broader to save content owners going after each ISP?
  • How long until refusing to use the IWF list, like some smaller ISPs, becomes illegal?
  • At what point is using VPN services outlawed: I use one when I’m on public WiFi but it would bypass any ISP provisions.

I’m sure none of us are really surprised, but it’s sad to be proven right.