In February, a secret meeting of the European Union’s Law Enforcement Work Party (LEWP) resulted in a worrying proposal.
To deal with illicit sites on the Internet, the group suggested the adoption of a China-like firewall to block websites deemed ‘inappropriate’. The controversial proposal immediately met resistance from various sides, including ISPs who would be tasked with maintaining the blocklist.
The copyright lobby on the other hand welcomes the initiative which they’ve been suggesting for years.
One of the sites that has a fair share of experience with being blocked is The Pirate Bay. The popular BitTorrent site is currently censored in Ireland, Italy and Denmark, and almost lost its domain name to the U.S. Government last year.
Needless to say, they are not happy with the EU’s latest censorship proposal. In fact, today they declare war on the proponents of Internet censorship, most prominently the entertainment industry (MAFIAA) lobbyists.
In a slightly edited version of Winston Churchill’s “this was their finest hour” speech, in which they replace Nazi-Germany with MAFIAA, The Pirate Bay team declares war on Internet censorship advocates. Action has to be taken before it’s too late, is the message they convey.
“I expect that the Battle of Internets is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of an Uncensored civilization! Upon it depends our own free life, and the long continuity of our sites and our trackers. The whole fury and might of the enemy will very soon be turned on us,” The Pirate Bay writes.
“MAFIAA knows that they will have to break us in Brussels or lose the war. If we can stand up to them, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the free Internets and its multitude of sites last for a thousand years, citizens will still say, This was their finest hour,” they add.
The speech, signed by “Winston Bay,” clearly shows The Pirate Bay’s concern with censorship proposals as opted by the European Union recently. The big question remains, is there really something that can be done to stop it, or has that ship sailed already?
