Dutch court orders ISPs Ziggo and XS4ALL to block The Pirate Bay

[riso]

With the site-blocking SOPA bill still making headlines in the US, a Dutch district court has ordered two ISPs to stop their customers from accessing BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay. Dutch ISPs Ziggo and XS4ALL will have ten working days to start blocking the site before being hit with fines of €10,000 ($12,750) a day. The ruling is the latest news in an ongoing case between the ISPs and Dutch trade association BREIN. Neither party is satisfied with the result, however — XS4ALL is planning to appeal, and BREIN will soon be going after more ISPs.

The Pirate Bay has been in legal trouble for years, but this latest decision seems to be part of a growing trend of governments mandating blocking for certain sites or services. Besides SOPA, a Belarus law banning all non-national internet has just been implemented, and Indonesia has threatened to cut off BlackBerry's service.