Eztv, Kickass Torrents Blocked: Piracy Sites Taken Down In Europe's Latest Isp Order

At least a dozen popular piracy sites -- including Kick Ass Torrents, EZTV and RARBG -- have been blocked in Denmark as the result of a complaint from a copyright enforcement group. Denmark has traditionally been the first country to block major torrent sites like the Pirate Bay, an indication that a wider ban on file sharing services could be imminent for other European countries.

IsoHunt, Torrentz, TubePlus and other sites that provide streaming TVs and movies as well as torrent downloads without the copyright owners consent were shut down as part of the decision. The copyright group Rights Alliance asked a Danish Court to force Internet Service Providers to block access to sites found to be hosting or linking to illicit content, TorrentFreak reported. A spokesman for the Danish copyright group told the news site they're trying to educate the public about the problems piracy creates.

“Rights Alliance doesn't merely take an enforcement approach. We want to understand user behavior [to] offer people legal alternatives,” said Rights Alliance head Maria Fredenslund. “We are quite happy that there are so many people who are looking online for entertainment. Our goal is to steer them in the right direction, instead of simply blocking access.”

The biggest torrent sites, particularly Kick Ass and EZTV, frequently switch from one domain to another to stay ahead of website seizures or ISPs blockade, like the one underway in Denmark. That strategy, combined with the media attention around the blockade, might actually help torrent sites find more users.

“Blocking is the greatest thing that can happen to your site,” one site's administrator told TorrentFreak. “Whoever is blocking the sites is actually doing us a favor by telling the users that they can't open the site, thus making the users want to open the site even more.”