Four internet providers (ISPs) in Austria have to block three websites distributing pirated content starting next Friday. The blockade follows a ruling by the Austrian Supreme Court and a summon based on this ruling by the Austrian anti-piracy organisation "Verein für Antipiraterie".
The Austrian anti-piracy organisation has demanded the Austrian providers A1, 3, T-Mobile and UPC to block the three websites The PirateBay, Kinox.to and Movie4k. The organisation ask the ISPs to block the site in their DNS and by IP address and the blockade has to be put in place this Friday.
The providers are required to meet the demand based on a ruling of the Austrian Supreme Court last week. The ruling confirmed a previous ruling stating that freedom of speech has not been impaired when the websites are blocked and that ISPs in Austria can be forced to block certain websites.
The case was brought to court by the movie companies Allegro Film, Wega Film and Epo Film. They wanted their movies, 'In 3 Tagen bist Du tot', 'Atmen' and 'Amour' to be no longer illegaly available.
The ISPs confirm they are required to block the pirate websites but argue they have too little time to put the blockade in place. They also point out that a complete blockade of The Pirate Bay in their eyes is debatable because there is also legal content on that site.
The Piratebay is blocked (or has been blocked) in many countries including Argentina, Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Malasia, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Although the blockades prevent internet users to land directly on the Piratebay, there are numerous of proxies that circumvent the blockade and provide access to all content of the Piratebay.
