Bollywood rejoice!

The High Court in Calcutta, India, has responded to a complaint from music industry trade body IMI by ruling that access to 104 alleged copyright-infringing music websites must be blocked at ISP level. India's Internet service providers will utilize DNS and IP-based blocking as well as “deep packet inspection” to block access to the sites which include coolgoose.com, songs.pk and bollywood-hits.com.

Frances Moore, chief executive of worldwide recording industry rights group IFPI said “"This decision is a victory for the rule of law online and a blow to those illegal businesses that want to build revenues by violating the rights of others" adding "It highlights the importance the Indian courts place on the creative industries and their contribution to the economy. The court ruled that blocking is a proportionate and effective way to tackle website piracy. The Indian government should build on this progress by moving forward legislation to effectively tackle all forms of digital piracy to enable the country's digital music market to reach its full potential."

With a large proportion of music sales in India tied to the movie industry both sectors will no doubt be pleased with the court’s actions. "There is a lot to be done as there is a long battle ahead to curb piracy," IMI Chief Adviser JF Ribeiro told the Hindustan Times, saying "The IMI is now focusing on implementation of the order and ensuring that all unauthorised websites which offer downloading of music for free without license are banned and blocked."

http://betanews.com/2012/03/16/indian-isps-commanded-to-block-over-100-music-websites-for-alleged-piracy/