EZTV, Kickass Torrents Blocked: Piracy Sites Taken Down In Europe's Latest ISP Order

At least a dozen popular piracy sites -- including KickassTorrents, 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 such as 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 (ISPs) 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 that it's 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,” Rights Alliance head Maria Fredenslund said. “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 Kickass and EZTV, frequently switch from one domain to another to stay ahead of website seizures or ISP blockades, such as 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.”