Anti-Piracy Group Blackmails ISPs to Censor The Pirate Bay
Belgian organisation requested blocking and filtering internet !!! After a court ordered two of the largest Belgian Internet service providers to prevent their users accessing The Pirate Bay, the local anti-piracy outfit is now urging other ISPs to do the same. Internet providers who refuse to give in to this request within 10 days will be taken to court, a threatening letter explains. The blackmailing tactic seems to have worked, as one of the smaller ISPs has already disabled access to The Pirate Bay. Late September the Antwerp Court of Appeal ordered Belgian ISPs Belgacom and Telenet to initiate DNS blockades of 11 domains connected to The Pirate Bay. After a court ordered two of the largest Belgian Internet service providers to prevent their users accessing The Pirate Bay, the local anti-piracy outfit is now urging other ISPs to do the same. Internet providers who refuse to give in to this request within 10 days will be taken to court, a threatening letter explains. The blackmailing tactic seems to have worked, as one of the smaller ISPs has already disabled access to The Pirate Bay. Late September the Antwerp Court of Appeal ordered Belgian ISPs Belgacom and Telenet to initiate DNS blockades of 11 domains connected to The Pirate Bay. The Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation (BAF) applauded the verdict, which they see as a landmark decision opening the door to further censorship attempts. And indeed, without hesitation the group is putting the verdict to work in their favor. NURPA, a Belgian advocacy group which promotes and protects the digital rights of citizens, has learned that BAF has sent a threatening letter to various Belgian ISPs. The group has managed to obtain a copy which they published on their site today. In the letter, BAF mentions the recent verdict against the two Belgian Internet providers, which they say confirms The Pirate Bay is responsible for copyright infringement on a massive scale. To extend the ruling, the anti-piracy group is demanding that other ISPs also begin banning the site’s domains. “To ensure an optimal effect, this measure should be implemented by all Internet service providers, not just by Belgacom and Telenet,” the anti-piracy group writes. The ISPs have ten days to comply, BAF adds, or else the group will take them to court. “Failing a satisfactory response from you within the time limit, the BAF will begin legal proceedings against you,” BAF threatens. Full article on https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-group-blackmails-isps-to-censor-the-pir... Rudi Vansnick President - CEO ——————————————— Internet Society Belgium ————————————————— President - CEO Tel +32/(0)9/329.39.16 rudi.vansnick@isoc.be Mobile +32/(0)475/28.16.32 Dendermondesteenweg 143 B-9070 Destelbergen BELGIUM www.internetsociety.be "The Internet is for everyone" ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Hi, Rudi, this is incredibly parallel to ICE's domain name seizure actions in US. Could you elaborate if this is a notice-and-blockade measure (so ISP is only supposed to block those specified domains) or is a generalized filtering system (ISP has to block any access to Piracy Bay even without notification from copyright owners)? Hong On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 5:54 PM, Rudi Vansnick <rudi.vansnick@isoc.be> wrote:
Belgian organisation requested blocking and filtering internet !!!
After a court ordered two of the largest Belgian Internet service providers to prevent their users accessing The Pirate Bay, the local anti-piracy outfit is now urging other ISPs to do the same. Internet providers who refuse to give in to this request within 10 days will be taken to court, a threatening letter explains. The blackmailing tactic seems to have worked, as one of the smaller ISPs has already disabled access to The Pirate Bay.
Late September the Antwerp Court of Appeal ordered Belgian ISPs Belgacom and Telenet to initiate DNS blockades of 11 domains connected to The Pirate Bay.
After a court ordered two of the largest Belgian Internet service providers to prevent their users accessing The Pirate Bay, the local anti-piracy outfit is now urging other ISPs to do the same. Internet providers who refuse to give in to this request within 10 days will be taken to court, a threatening letter explains. The blackmailing tactic seems to have worked, as one of the smaller ISPs has already disabled access to The Pirate Bay.
Late September the Antwerp Court of Appeal ordered Belgian ISPs Belgacom and Telenet to initiate DNS blockades of 11 domains connected to The Pirate Bay.
The Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation (BAF) applauded the verdict, which they see as a landmark decision opening the door to further censorship attempts. And indeed, without hesitation the group is putting the verdict to work in their favor.
NURPA, a Belgian advocacy group which promotes and protects the digital rights of citizens, has learned that BAF has sent a threatening letter to various Belgian ISPs. The group has managed to obtain a copy which they published on their site today.
In the letter, BAF mentions the recent verdict against the two Belgian Internet providers, which they say confirms The Pirate Bay is responsible for copyright infringement on a massive scale. To extend the ruling, the anti-piracy group is demanding that other ISPs also begin banning the site’s domains.
“To ensure an optimal effect, this measure should be implemented by all Internet service providers, not just by Belgacom and Telenet,” the anti-piracy group writes.
The ISPs have ten days to comply, BAF adds, or else the group will take them to court.
“Failing a satisfactory response from you within the time limit, the BAF will begin legal proceedings against you,” BAF threatens.
Full article on
https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-group-blackmails-isps-to-censor-the-pir...
Rudi Vansnick President - CEO ——————————————— Internet Society Belgium ————————————————— President - CEO Tel +32/(0)9/329.39.16 rudi.vansnick@isoc.be Mobile +32/(0)475/28.16.32 Dendermondesteenweg 143 B-9070 Destelbergen BELGIUM www.internetsociety.be "The Internet is for everyone" ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
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-- Dr. Hong Xue Professor of Law Director of Institute for the Internet Policy & Law (IIPL) Beijing Normal University http://www.iipl.org.cn/ <http://iipl.org.cn/> 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Street Beijing 100875 China
On 06.12.2011 12:05, Hong Xue wrote:
Hi, Rudi, this is incredibly parallel to ICE's domain name seizure actions in US. Could you elaborate if this is a notice-and-blockade measure (so ISP is only supposed to block those specified domains) or is a generalized
filtering system (ISP has to block any access to Piracy Bay even without
notification from copyright owners)?
Hello Hong, There are two major differences with ICE's domain name seizures. 1. It is the result of an apppeals court decision, not one of an administration. 2. The domain names were not seized. Rather, the two ISPs were asked to redirect the queries to those two domain names to an IP address pointing to a police-run web site, announcing the blockade. Indeed, the court decision refers to blocking DNS access access only, for a well-defined list of domain names. It does not ask to block access to the IP address(es) of the Pirate Bay. It is interesting to note that, in the meantime, the European Court of Justice, has ruled on a slightly related case. See: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2011-11/cp110126en.p... . Based on the jurisprudence of the ECJ, there is possibility that the original court decision could be revised. Additionally, there is content featured on The Pirate Bay for which the plaintiff does not hold IP rights but gets blocked anyway. Collateral damage, if you like. It remains to be seen of the two ISPs that were asked to block the domain names will file a motion to revise the judgement. There are some legal uncertainties here. Best, Patrick Vande Walle
participants (3)
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Hong Xue -
Patrick Vande Walle -
Rudi Vansnick