Danish Internet providers ordered to block a number of popular torrent sites

After the appeal of the Right Alliance of Denmark, the court ordered the country's Internet providers to block access to a number of popular stimulating resources and torrent trackers, according to torrentfreak.com . Under the lock got 12 pirated sites, such as KickassTorrents, RARBG and TubePlus. Such actions copyright owners are trying to get people to buy licensed content. However, one of the owners of a blocked resource believes that this will only lead to free advertising of his site.


For almost ten years, Denmark has been playing the role of a test platform in blocking websites and combating digital piracy. The first blocking in Denmark dates back to 2006, after representatives of the music industry, the IFPI group of companies, filed a complaint against two Russian resources distributing MP3 files — AllofMP3 and MP3sparks. After some time, Denmark became the first country to block access of its citizens to ThePirateBay. In subsequent years, there were a number of minor locks, but the current application for the inclusion of pirated sites in the blacklist is the largest in Danish practice.

After a complaint from the local Legal Alliance (dated. RettighedsAlliancen), another 12 popular torrent trackers, streaming services and MP3 file hosting services were added to the blacklist of pirated resources. List of new domains included in the blacklist: free-tv-video-online.me, watchseries.lt, solarmovie.is, tubeplus.me, mp3vip.org, rarbg.com, extratorrent.cc, isohunt.to, eztv. ch, kickass.to, torrentz.eu and music-bazaar.com.

In connection with the recently entered into force agreement , the Danish providers will block all pirated sites on the black list, even if no claims have been made against them. The agreement signed at the end of last year between the Legal Alliance and the telecommunications industry, mentioned above, obliges providers to block piracy resources from a black list across the country without exceptions.
')
The head of the legal Alliance, Maria Fredenshlund, in an interview with the torrentfreak editorial board, stated that the main goal of the organization she heads is not only fighting piracy, but also legal education of users. For this reason, blocked pages contain links to official digital content stores.

"Legal Alliance" does not just protect the interests of rights holders. We strive to understand the behavior of users and offer them a legal alternative to piracy "- says Maria." We are very pleased that so many people are interested in online entertainment. Our main goal is to guide the consumer, not just to block access to content. She adds.

Yes, the resources affected by the blocking will lose the Danish part of the audience, but not all owners of the blocked sites are distressed. The owner of one of the blocked resources agreed to comment on the situation on condition of anonymity. He says that these attempts at blocking are only free advertising and anyone can access his resource using a proxy or anonymizer.

“Blocking is the best thing that can happen to a site. Blocking is free advertising, and people are drawn to the forbidden, ”says the owner. “Anyone who blocks websites actually provides us with a great service, telling users that now they will not be able to open a website, as a result of which people are beginning to want to get even more on it”

To the “Legal Alliance” the situation is presented in a different light. According to their statistics, locks are an effective measure. “There are clear signs that our methods work. Recent testing has shown that if people were warned in advance about possible responsibility, 84% of users prefer not to continue attempts to switch to a prohibited resource, ”said Maria.

Testing was conducted in a number of Danish schools. Instead of completely blocking pirated resources, the user received a notification when trying to go to a prohibited site, which provided a legitimate alternative or allowed to continue working with a pirated resource. Most of those who received such notification, chose not to continue working with the pirate site.

It is not yet clear whether the result obtained is applicable to uncontrolled home connections of users or not. In any case, the new wave of locks in Denmark creates additional obstacles to the activity of pirates.