[mike7]

Virgin Media are to be commended for taking this step. The music and movie industry is by no means as bouyant as it once was. Any talk of this move being 'censorship' is nonsense. Pirate Bay and similar sites provide a means whereby people can obtain material without paying for it. Do we have the right to walk into our local supermarket and walk out without paying? Clearly last year some people did and now they are paying heavily through the criminal courts.

There was a time when there were far more record companies than there are now. Money was there to invest in new and upcoming acts, producing albums and promoting them. Now this has become a self promotion game with few surviving long enough to gain a foothold in the marketplace. True there are movie producers who make money, but again we are finding a shrinking marketplace and lack of funding for developing new talents. What income there is goes into backing 'dead certs' hence the run of similar movies, with sequel after sequel until the initial idea is done to death.

You may 'find ways round the ban' but if you do you will simply go on strangling the industry denying artists, producers,directors and all the technicians who all earn a living from the product they produce. How many of those who are desparately trying to beat the ban would want to be working for nothing, or seeing the fruits of their labours stolen by criminals?