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Pirate Bay Block Lifted In the Netherlands

Posted by timothy on from the blood-in-the-streets dept.

swinferno writes "The Dutch ISPs Ziggo and XS4all are no longer required to block access to the websites of The Pirate Bay. [Original in Dutch; here's Google's translation.] This has been decided by the court in The Hague. The blockade has proven to be ineffective. The Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN will have to reimburse legal costs of €326,000. The internet provider XS4ALL has already started lifting the ban. The website of The Pirate Bay was ordered to be blocked by the two major ISPs in January 2012. Recent studies by Amsterdam University and CentERdata showed that this did not reduce the number of downloads from illegal sources. Many people circumvented the blockade."

6 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Re:326 euros? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm from the US and I had no problem reading it. Thanks for contributing to the perception of the dumb American.

  2. Re:Recent studies by Sique · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Actually, it can be quite revealing to make studies about the obvious. Obvious means that we can easily come up with a good narrative about what we see and what we should expect, but that narrative does not necessarily connect somehow to what really happens. The often cited example is that of Newton's apple, where it is obvious that it's the Earth pulling down the apple, but it's not what really happens.

    So yes: Study the obvious thoroughly, and you pretty soon lose any idea about "obviousness".

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  3. Re:Recent studies by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You mean like hijacking a common folk tale and copyrighting it forever?

    I think it's sad that a study about this is really necessary.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:Intersting by DickBreath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In addition to considering whether a measure is effective, it is reasonable to consider whether it is the ISP's job or Google's job or anyone else's job to police copyright infringement.

    The ISP's job is to deliver and route packets. Period.

    I mentioned Google, simply because the RIAA-holes also believe that it is Google's job to police copyright infringement as well as ISPs job.

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  5. Re:Recent studies by Shalaska · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly, in most cases piracy is a indication of a service problem. It is amazing the number of times I have and have seen others have to pirate a game I already own, just because the DRM-copy fails to function as advertised due to draconian DRM restrictions. Furthermore the pirated copy doesn't require things such as disks in the CD drive which I would rather not have to look for. On the other hand all of the games I have gotten off of Steam, although using Steam's DRM system, I have not had to pirate because their system just works for me.

    Whenever a pirated copy is better then the legal copy, there is something wrong with the legal copy.

    --
    Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
  6. Re:An unexpected burst of common sense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You think that this ruling was common sense? It's very odd to issue a ruling based on whether blocking TPB was effective or ineffective. The only question a judge should ponder is whether the block was justified legally.