Dutch Court Mandates DNS Blocking of Pirate Bay

Anti-piracy group BREIN asserts that legal content on Pirate Bay Web site is "marginal"

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/11/2012 1:31:12 PM

Studios, networks and other content providers have gotten more fodder for their argument that governments need to crack down on online video piracy, including by blocking access to domain names of infringing sites.
 
The Hague court in the Netherlands has ruled that Dutch ISPs Ziggo and XS4All must block access to Web site The Pirate Bay, according to Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, which represent Dutch video and music producers and which sought that court order.
 
"The court acknowledges that the ordered blocking also affects subscribers who didn't infringe copyrights," said BRIEN in a statement. "However, the interests of these subscribers, which are damaged by the IP- and DNS-block, should be considered limited according to the court because the legal content on The Pirate Bay is marginal."
 
Some opponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), currently being vetted in the U.S. House, have argued that the increased authority it gives content providers to combat alleged piracy, including blocking of domain names with a court's approval, threatens the openness and even viability of the Internet, a charge content owners suggest is alarmist and unfounded hyperbole. According to SOPA supporters, the move buttresses a decision in an Antwerp court of appeals last September in which a pair of ISPs was also ordered to block Pirate Bay. Italy took a similar step last year.