The Pirate Bay is blocked in dozens of countries around the world. In most cases, ISPs are ordered to take action after a relatively short court proceeding.

In the Netherlands, however, the process took more than a decade , and it’s still not completely over yet.

ISPs Have to Block The Pirate Bay

A few weeks ago the Amsterdam Court ruled in favor of anti-piracy group BREIN , ordering local ISPs Ziggo and XS4ALL to block The Pirate Bay. This order confirmed an earlier verdict, which made detours all the way to the European Court of Justice and the Dutch Supreme Court.

In recent years The Pirate Bay has been blocked by ISPs due to a preliminary injunction. This injunction also required the companies to add new domains along the way, including proxy and mirror sites. According to BREIN, the measures significantly reduced traffic to the popular pirate site.

With the victory at the Amsterdam Court in June, the blocking measures became final. That’s important, as it opens the door for blocking requests against other sites. However, BREIN didn’t get everything it wanted.

Proxies Are Not Mentioned in the Ruling

The court reinstated the original verdict from the lower court, which was issued in 2012. While that indeed requires the ISPs to block The Pirate Bay, it doesn’t mention any proxies and mirrors. BREIN requested these to be added, but the court viewed this as a separate matter.

In theory, this means that Ziggo and XS4ALL were free to unblock dozens of domains again and face another legal fight over the proxies. Initially, it wasn’t clear if that would happen, but we can now confirm that this is indeed the case.

ISPs Unblock Pirate Bay Proxies

In the weeks following the court’s judgment, the ISPs started to unblock dozens of Pirate Bay proxy domains. This is also apparent from XS4ALL’s blocking page , which shows that only thepiratebay.org remains inaccessible.

The ISPs are completely within their rights to unblock these domains. After all, the standing order doesn’t mention any proxies.

However, this also means that they will be back in court soon. In fact, BREIN has already taken action to have Pirate Bay proxies and mirrors blocked by launching a new proceeding.

We reached out to Ziggo and XS4All to ask why they chose to lift the blocks, but the companies refrained from commenting while the new legal proceeding is underway.

Shenanigans

BREIN director Tim Kuik, meanwhile, characterizes the ISPs’ decision to unblock the sites as “shenanigans” and “downright silly.” A decision that he believes will only cost the companies more money.

The court previously ordered other Dutch ISPs to block proxy sites as well and BREIN believes that it will obtain a similar order against Ziggo and XS4ALL in the near future.

“It is clear effective blocking must include proxies and mirrors, the appeal court said so, and the refusal of Ziggo and KPN/XS4ALL to conform to the standing order against the other ISPs is downright silly,” Kuik tells TorrentFreak.

“We are getting a separate order now and are claiming full costs because of these shenanigans that cause harm to injured right holders,” he adds.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Piracy settlement letters have become a serious threat in several countries.

Dutch Internet users have been spared from this practice, but local movie distributor Dutch Filmworks (DFW), planned to change that.

Two years ago the movie company received permission from the Dutch Data Protection Authority to track the IP-addresses of BitTorrent users who shared pirated movies.

However, that was only the first hurdle, as Dutch Internet provider Ziggo refused to share any customer data without a court order.

The case went to court, where the movie company requested the personal details of 377 account holders whose addresses were allegedly used to share a copy of the movie “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”.

Dutch Filmworks lost this case but swiftly announced an appeal. This ruling was initially expected during this summer, but the Court of Appeal postponed it due to the complexity of the case. After additional deliberation, the Court announced its verdict today .

The Court of Appeal in Arnhem sided with the lower court, rejecting the request for subscriber details. In its ruling, the Court explains that it must find a balance between the privacy rights of subscribers and Dutch Filmworks’ intellectual property rights.

In this specific case, copyright doesn’t outweigh the privacy rights of Internet subscribers. This is, in part, because it remains uncertain what the movie company plans to do with the personal data it obtains. Dutch Filmworks explained that it could either warn subscribers or request damages, but that it would decide this on a case-by-case basis.

“By not being transparent about the criteria it applies when carrying out its intended actions, the interests of the involved Ziggo customer are harmed,” the Court notes.

“In the opinion of the Court of Appeal, this leads to a disturbance of the [rights] balance, in particular in the situation that it is uncertain whether the Ziggo customer involved is actually the infringer,” the Court adds, noting that the subscriber in question may be a third-party.

In addition, it remains unclear how large the proposed settlements will be. An initial figure of €150 per infringement has been mentioned in the past, but this number could also be significantly higher. Transparency is lacking here as well, which means more uncertainty for the potential targets.

After weighing all evidence, the Court of Appeal concludes that the lower court made the right decision . Based on the presented information, the Court can’t grant the request to hand over the personal details of alleged infringers.

“There are no clear and comprehensible criteria based on which an estimate can be made of the consequences for the relevant Ziggo customers, if their personal data is disclosed. It cannot be checked whether the intended measures are in reasonable proportion to the importance that it serves DFW and the privacy interest of the Ziggo customer whose privacy is violated.”

In addition, the Court ordered the movie company to pay €4,000 in costs. Whether Dutch Filmworks will continue to appeal the case is unknown at the time of publication. For now, however, Ziggo customers don’t have to worry about a settlement letter from Dutch Filmworks.

Source: TF , for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons .