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.

The letter from BAF was supposedly sent last week, and already appears to have had some effect. The Belgian ISP BASE – which ironically has a “freedom of speech” banner prominently listed on its site – has quietly started blocking subscriber access to The Pirate Bay.

BAF’s letter and BASE’s response are criticized by NURPA, who fear that BAF will continue to push for more censorship measures based on false claims.

“These practices of censorship, which are justified by imaginary losses and imposed by blackmail, show the urgent need for legislation on Net Neutrality in order to establish a legal framework for fair protection of fundamental rights on the Internet,” NURPA spokesman André Loconte told TorrentFreak.

Even if BAF manages to convince all Belgian ISPs to block the 11 Pirate Bay domains, it is doubtful that it will have much of an effect. Previously, a Pirate Bay spokesperson told TorrentFreak that these measures only yield the opposite results.

“This will just give us more traffic, as always. Thanks for the free advertising,” we were told.

And he appears to be right.

A few days after the verdict was announced The Pirate Bay registered depiraatbaai.be, a new domain not covered by the court order. Today, just a few weeks later, this domain is already the 124th most-visited in Belgium, on its way to enter the top 100.

Indeed, the years of legal procedures and subsequent blackmailing are easily circumvented by registering a $15 domain.

Source: Anti-Piracy Group Blackmails ISPs to Censor The Pirate Bay

The local anti-piracy movement applauded the verdict, which they see as a landmark case that will open the doors for further censorship attempts. However, it is questionable that it will have much of an effect.

Earlier today we already reported how the usenet indexing site Newzbin2 updated its anti-censorship client to allow Belgians to keep their access to The Pirate Bay. And a few hours later The Pirate Bay team delivered an even easier solution.

“The Judge obviously has no idea what he’s dealing with, because the verdict of this expensive court battle can be easily undone,” The Pirate Bay team told TorrentFreak.

“Just a few minutes ago we registered a new domain that’s not listed in the order. We have already started pointing users from Belgium to the new address, so they know where to go when their ISPs implement the DNS blockade.”

The new domain name is “depiraatbaai.be,” the literal translation of The Pirate Bay in Dutch. The new domain is already pointing to The Pirate Bay’s servers and people accessing the standard domain from a Belgian IP-address will be redirected to the new home.

“We have to admit that Belgian domain names are not cheap, but we have to make a stand here,” The Pirate Bay team told us.

The above is a clear example that the people judging on these issues don’t have the slightest idea what they’re dealing with. This is supported by the fact that the actual court order only lists the www domains of The Pirate Bay and not the bare addresses (www.thepiratebay.org vs. thepiratebay.org).

The ‘error’ above was pointed out by Maarten Schenk and soon picked up by the mainstream media in Belgium. They point out that if the verdict is taken literally, the ISPs don’t have to block the domains without the www. A massive failure.

“Let’s hope the ISPs are brave enough to put this theory to the test,” The Pirate Bay team notes.

The take home message is, as always, that there are plenty of options for users and site admins to bypass these and other censorship attempts. Or as John Gilmore once said: “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”

For the time being the number of Belgian visitors to The Pirate Bay is only going up.

Source: The Pirate Bay Adds Domain to Bypass Court Order

The judge thought otherwise (pdf) and, based on claims from a P2P expert, said that ISPs do have the technical means at their disposal to block or filter pirated content on P2P networks. The ISP in question was given six months to implement such measures.

In a response to this news Rick Falkvinge, the leader and founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, told TorrentFreak:

“this confirms what we’ve been saying all along: the record industry wants to abolish postal secrets and freedom of the press in order to maintain their crumbling monopolies. They are actually celebrating the fact that a third unaccountable party gets to inspect everything sent between any and all private individuals, and gets to destroy any undesired communication.”

The ruling by the Belgian court implements EU legislation, and iaccording to the IFPI, it sets an important precedent in the fight against piracy internationally. In a response to the decision IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said: “This is a decision that we hope will set the mould for government policy and for courts in other countries in Europe and around the world.”

Let’s hope not. And, can anyone explain to me how ISPs are supposed to filter copyright infringing content?

Source: ISP Forced to Block and Filter Pirated Content on P2P Networks