Cleanfeed is the system BT (British Telecom) has set up a few years ago. It's main goal is to block content to sites listed on the Internet Watch Foundation’s “Child Abuse Images” database.

As of a few days ago BT will now be obliged to use their Cleanfeed system to block Newzbin2.

So I found this page called Cleanfeed: the facts which explains what Cleanfeed is supposed to be.

A few interesting points:

As a matter of fact, Cleanfeed will not block anything that is not specifically HTTP over port 80, in other words ONLY non-encrypted standard web content.

Impressive. Believe ?

Scope creep is a serious risk

• The Home Office originally indicated to BT that Cleanfeed might be employed to block access to other undesirable content
• Wannadoo has already been approached by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) about implementing a system similar to Cleanfeed so as to block access to works allegedly infringing copyright.
• BT says that if the pressure to extend the scope of Cleanfeed became too great it would simply cancel the project.

It can seem as if BT does not want to filter such content (alleged copyrighted stuff), probably not so much for ethical reasons as much as technical and commercial reasons, indeed, if BT is now the only ISP that has to block Newzbin2.... .. .

So, will BT cancel the project ?

A victory for the creative industry, finally. A British court has ruled that BT (British Telecom) must block access to Newzbin2 (if you can't access it check via Herdict).

Some say this is good news for the audiovisual entertainment industry as they will finally be able to pay their bills and such. Indeed it is well known that the industry behind the MPA (Motion Picture Association) have been in complete financial decline since the popularisation of the Internet.. check the numbers. They have been selling approximately the same amount of tickets every year for the past 15 years yet the revenue has doubled, that means they are doing bad right ?

Others say this is an attack on our Freedom of w4r3z.. .. People need w4r3z, that's why the Internet was invented.

And others, more seriously, point out the issues between having ISPs enforce content filtering, websites being blocked more and more easily, innocent bystanders... and websites getting blocked for "copyright" reasons when it will in reality be for other reasons, like political for example.

Worse comes to worse, they block all of this stuff from the Internets and people will have no choice but to do other things with their lives. I think that because I doubt people will spend more on music and movies than they already do. Because people already spend a lot of money as it is..

Read more at Guardian/filesharing.