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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."

13 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Recent studies by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Recent studies by Amsterdam University and CentERdata.showed that this did not reduce the number of downloads from illegal sources.

    It must be sad to make studies about the obvious.

    You go have a beer with friends and they ask you "hey! What are you studying now?"

    "I''ve proven that blocking thepiratebay doesn't reduce the number of illegal downloads", you say low voice while fiddling with the peanuts.

    And then they look at you as if you were retarded.

    1. Re:Recent studies by SecurityTheatre · · Score: 5, Interesting

      On the other hand, I commend lawmakers and Judges for looking at the data and making a rational decision.

      In many places, the politicians enter the discussion with an idea of how things work. Most of the time, they simply refuse to change their mind, damn the evidence.

      I tip my hat to the Dutch judges or politicians who reserve judgement, wait for a peer-reviewed or statistically rigorous assessment from an independent body, and then make a reasonable decision from that.

      Just because YOU feel it is obvious, obviously many people don't. Good data is the most appropriate counter to ignorant assumptions.

    2. Re:Recent studies by telchine · · Score: 4, Funny

      I tip my hat to the Dutch judges or politicians who reserve judgement

      Judges that reserve judgement? That's just ridiculous, not to mention selfish!

      If I were a judge I'd hand out judgement freely to anyone who asked for it. Hell, even some who didn't! I'd be dedicated to my job!

    3. 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*
    4. 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.
    5. Re:Recent studies by c · · Score: 4, Funny

      And then they look at you as if you were retarded.

      ... and yet, it's far better than saying "I've been thinking of going into politics".

      --
      Log in or piss off.
    6. 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.
  2. Intersting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is a pretty interesting decision.

    Regardless of what one thinks about copyright, forcing someone to do something ineffective to prevent it is just a waste of resources. Even if it is effective if the cost is greater than the benefit it could be questionable.
    It seems that it would be reasonable that the copyright holder pays the cost to enforce the copyright, otherwise an entitled copyright holder might request that even symbolic measures should be taken at completely unreasonable costs

    1. Re:Intersting by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It seems that it would be reasonable that the copyright holder pays the cost to enforce the copyright, otherwise an entitled copyright holder might request that even symbolic measures should be taken at completely unreasonable costs

      Now if someone can just do this with spurrious takedown requests. When there is no cost to it, there is no reason to stop.

    2. 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.
  3. What's Pirate Bay? by RivenAleem · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is that some sister site to Pirate Proxy?

  4. 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.

  5. On the down side... by QuasiSteve · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On the down side...
    1. Brein has already put out a bit of newsfluff saying that they're planning to appeal.
    2. If this stands, Brein and others will simply put this on the scales to tip in favor of making downloading illegal* - something that the EU says NL should be doing in the first place; NL is one of the few countries where downloading of movies/music/TV series is legal (uploading is illegal, as is downloading of software, etc.) That in turn could lead to a 3-strikes type law (Even though the one in France fails miserably because 1. people avoid getting caught and 2. even when caught, rarely do people actually get cut off.. so it's all bark and no bite.) or direct targeting of downloaders.

    * Within the context of 'piracy'. Obviously you're welcome to download the front page of slashdot, or a linux distribution, view whatever you want on YouTube, etc. etc.