People can now access 'The Pirate Bay', a file-sharing website after the ban on it was lifted, following a deal between telecom company KPN and Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN.
This deal follows a court order in The Hague, where two Internet service providers (ISP) - Ziggo and XS4AII - were asked not to block users from accessing The Pirate Bay. Soon after, KPN reached a deal with BREIN, according to which they were able to lift the ban on users who want to access the torrent site, ZDNet reported.
The court in its verdict said that BREIN cannot force ISPs to block access to the site, as there was no dip in the content that were being downloaded by people illegally, and that the ban on them has not helped matters either.
The ban against the site was ruled in 2012, and KPN was not only ordered to block all access to the site but also that in case it does not, it had to shell out approximately €10,000 ($13,763) fine. That ruling has now been rendered useless.
Though BREIN has lost the case, it has said that the suspension of the ban on The Pirate Bay is only temporary. Further, it was also understood that now BREIN might also have to ask other ISPs to remove the ban on the site. BREIN stated that all ISPs, which they had ordered to ban the site, can lift the ban temporarily but only after consulting with the antipiracy organisation.
BREIN was not satisfied with the ruling. "The court believes that the purpose of the block is to cut the total number of infringements. Because the overall BitTorrent traffic at XS4ALL did not decrease, the court assumes that its subscribers are circumventing the blocking or visiting other torrent sites. The court considers that BREIN should have requested the blocking of other illegal websites at the same time. BREIN does not agree with the court's reasoning," the organisation stated.
The anti-piracy organisation will be taking the case to the Supreme Court but a date for a Supreme Court ruling has not been set, and it might take at least two more years to reach a verdict.
The Pirate Bay reportedly generates around $36 million or more in yearly advertising revenue from its torrent site.
