Internet provider Odido has lost a lawsuit from piracy fighter Stichting Brein over the blocking of a popular torrent site. Due to the verdict, the illegal service must now be blocked by all Dutch providers.
The court in Rotterdam has Odido ordered to block access to the well-known torrent site TorrentGalaxy. According to the judge, this site infringes copyright on a large scale because it contributes to the illegal distribution of films, series, music and games, among other things.
Odido initially did not want to comply with the request of piracy fighter Stichting Brein to block the site. The telecom company believed that Brein should first take legal action against the foreign hosting companies that keep TorrentGalaxy up and running, but the judge did not agree.
One of the largest torrent sites
According to the judge, Brein cannot be expected to require the foundation to first conduct legal proceedings abroad against internet companies before a website block can be requested in the Netherlands.
Brein had also previously sent unsuccessful requests to several hosting companies that provide services to TorrentGalaxy, which is one of the best-known illegal download sites worldwide. At the beginning of this year, TorrentGalaxy was in fourth place in the top 10 torrentsites.
All major providers cooperate
Due to the verdict, TorrentGalaxy must now be blocked by all Dutch providers, just as has been happening for several years with other well-known illegal download sites, such as The Pirate Bay. Dutch providers, such as Ziggo and KPN, have agreed in an agreement to permanently block these sites. This not only concerns the domain name and IP address, but also all specified proxies and mirrors.
Stichting Brein says that it has had more than 2,000 unique domains blocked in six years. Currently, 574 domains of illegal services are blocked by Dutch providers following court orders. The Dutch block list includes The Pirate Bay, YTS, KAT, 1337x, EZTV, Lookmovie, and Flixtor.
Stichting Brein calls the blocks ‘effective’, even though they can be circumvented by people with some technical knowledge. “It leads to a large decrease in visits from the Netherlands to the blocked illegal websites,” said Bastiaan van Ramshorst, director of the Brein Foundation.
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Source: www.bright.nl
