Kolkata High Court banned Songs.pk in India

Access to music sharing site Songs.pk which hosts songs from Bollywood films and independent music artists from India and Pakistan, has been prohibited in India, abiding by a petition in the Kolkata High court by Indian music industry bodies Indian Music Industry (IMI) and Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), and music label Sagarika Music Pvt Ltd, according to a accounting Jagran Post. According to a report by Telecommunication Talk, the Judicature has authorised an cease and desist order, asking all ISPs to blank out access to the internet site through techniques such as DNS name blocking or URL, IP address blocking via routers, and DPI based URL blocking. According to ProPakistani, Songs.pk is operated by a Pakistani webmaster. The internet site encounters millions of hits per month and has a global Alexa outranking of 891.

The petitioners had sought-after the at present associate route of blocking off access to the internet site from within India, naming ISPs like BG Broadband India Pvt Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Dishnet Wireless, Hathway Cable & Datacom Pvt Ltd, Hughes Communications Ltd India, Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd, Reliance Wimax Ltd,  Sify Technologies Ltd ,Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, Vodafone India Ltd and Wipro Ltd in the petition.

We don’t have access to the postulation; however, the orders surpassed the Calcutta Court on 27th January and 6th February do not name a specific internet site, and order the ISPs to allow the address of the internet site proprietor/manipulator. The govern also states that entirely the website named in the petition should be banned. We’re expecting a replicate of that postulation, and will update.

A couple of things to note:

– Two sides: In that respect have been cases of legitimate filesharing internet sites as well being blocked, so there are two sides to this issue: when generic filesharing sites are taken down, in which case we think the block is unwarranted, and the excusable case of pure play piracy sites like songs.pk being taken down.

– ISP route: Is the advantaged route for all kinds of blocks. Whether a court order or a a takedown notice, ISP’s tend to be alter of accepting any financial obligation and will accomplish blocks.

– Site still works: We are able to access the site on an Airtel Broadband and BSNL, at the time of writing this post.