User:94rain/1

United Kingdom
On 20 February 2012, the High Court in London ruled that The Pirate Bay facilitates copyright infringement. The operators of The Pirate Bay were not represented at the hearing. On 30 April 2012 Justice Arnold ordered Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media to block access to the site. BT "requested a few more weeks to further consider its position." Virgin Media began blocking access to the site on 2 May 2012. A source at The Pirate Bay claimed that it had received 12 million more visitors on the day after the ban than it had ever received before, commenting "We should write a thank you note to the BPI."

BT has adapted its Cleanfeed system to enforce the block. The Pirate Bay commented "As usual there are easy ways to circumvent the block. Use a VPN service to be anonymous and get an uncensored Internet access, you should do this anyhow." A study by Lund University suggested a 40% rise in the number of 15- to 25-year-olds using VPNs since 2009.

On 10 June 2012, TalkTalk began blocking access to the website for its UK customers. O2 and Sky Broadband have implemented the block, and on 19 June were joined by BT. Attempting to access The Pirate Bay via BT will produce the message "Error – site blocked". Other ISPs show a message explaining the court order, with The Pirate Bay logo and a link to the BPI website.

In mid July ISP data suggested that P2P traffic in the UK had dipped 11% just after the block, but then swiftly recovered to nearly the level before the block was enforced. "...volumes are already pretty much back to where they were before." The ISP released the figures anonymously to the BBC.

In December 2012, a proxy of The Pirate Bay website run by the Pirate Party UK was shut down following a threat of legal action by the British Phonographic Industry.