Portuguese Government Censors 28 ‘Pirate Sites’
Following up on a complaint from a local anti-piracy outfit, the Portuguese Ministry of Culture decided to order a shutdown and blockade of 28 sites that supposedly link to copyright infringing material.
A few days ago the Portuguese Cultural Activities Inspection (IGAC), an organization which is part of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture asked Sapo, one of the most prominent Portuguese ISPs, to remove and block all access to a list of 28 websites that allegedly link to copyrighted movies and music.
The complaint originated from the local anti-piracy outfit MAPiNET and according to the reports this is not the first ISP that was targeted.
Interestingly, the targeted sites are mostly smaller blogs linking to files hosted on Rapidshare and other file-hosting services, and no torrent sites were included. The majority of the websites are Portuguese language websites hosted elsewhere, and 4 of the websites are hosted at Sapo’s blog service.
The Government’s actions were taken under the local e-commerce law, which is in effect since 2004 and apparently allows for a shutdown of websites that link to copyrighted material hosted elsewhere.
The full list of all the censored sites is available in this pdf.
Update: IGAC doesn’t have the power to force the ISPs to take these sites offline, they issued a complaint.
Hot News!!
mapinet.org got hacked by Portuguese Hackers..
Now the website redirects to the most well know pirate trackers in the world.
=)
[...] http://freakbits.com/portuguese-government-censors-28-pirate-sites-0816 [...]
this article is kinda wrong…
what Mapinet asked was for PT/Sapo (same company, not just a ISP, it provides several services), to remove FROM THEIR SERVERS THESE SITES THAT WERE HOSTED BY THEM, not to block them from their internet users, BIG DIFFERENCE, especially when you report censorship…
also Mapinet doesn’t have any power regarding this issue as well as that particular section of the ministry of culture also doesn’t have any power, they just sent some e-mails complaining…
also the sites haven’t been removed (yet), the people from PT/Sapo said that they haven’t received any complaint yet, as well as most of the sites from that list only 4 are actually hosted with PT/Sapo (again Mapinet abusing and trying to let that one slip by), so this is just a matter of PT/Sapo terms of service regarding their hosting services, than portuguese copyright law or censorship…
ohh and the “The Government’s actions were taken under the local e-commerce law, which is in effect since 2004 and apparently allows for a shutdown of websites that link to copyrighted material hosted elsewhere.” is actually not true, it doesn’t just let them shutdown, this is a lawful country, the only way to get things done is in the courts ^_^’
and yes Mapinet are a bunch of idiots >_< they barely know the law themselves, before asking anything even to the ISP they send a press release to the news, this is just publicity stunt huhumm
How can they remove a site that’s not hosted by them?
Only 4 of the sites mentioned are actually on their servers…
they wont, its a complaint, i can also send a e-mail to your host saying to block 5 sites, 3 of them have clearly malware/phishing and i also add freakbits and torrentfreak, will host block your sites?… hummm probably not, still they might but thats another issue, one of incompetence not censorship and i’m sure if you ALSO complained they would give you back…
Go hackers! Amazing work!
Hmm seems that MAPiNET has fixed there site .. Now MAPiNET did you learn something today ?
[...] de la asociación antipiratería MAPiNET, ha ordenado a uno de los mayores ISP del país vecino que bloquee el acceso a 28 webs que contienen enlaces para bajarse canciones y [...]
[...] de la asociación antipiratería MAPiNET, ha ordenado a uno de los mayores ISP del país vecino que bloquee el acceso a 28 webs que contienen enlaces para bajarse canciones y [...]