A stupid decision and as @bethany said, Virgin Media's idea is better - in order to totally eradicate a problem it's better to educate society rather than outright block a website. It teaches those who illegally download absolutely nothing. Is ThePirateBay even a big website for such things now? I always thought it became a useless source, even before it was attacked by Government(s).
This is a clear example of those who are in control not knowing what is actually happening and just going out on a whim. If they really want to tackle this problem, they should be hiring people who are not compeltely stupid and tech-unsavvy,