Websites blocked in Belgium
The precise number of websites blocked in Belgium is unknown. Blocking may vary from one Internet Service Provider (ISP) to another with some sites blocked by some ISPs and not by others.
Site blocks in Belgium are at this moment based on DNS Hijacking which has the possibilities of circumventing using proxies.
Verification
There is no official complete register of blocked sites. Blocked content includes:
- Court orders (mainly for copyright issues)
- Unilateral blocking (some websites have been reported as being blocked without any known court order on the sole initiative of certain ISPs)
- Gambling regulations (Belgian gambling laws requires a Gambling business to have a local physical gambling point and proper license in order to provide online gambling)[1]
The only reported technique used by Belgian ISPs to block such websites is DNS Hijacking where requests toward the blocked websites would be redirected to a government owned web page: the "StopPage".[2]
Court-ordered blocked websites
These are the sites explicitly listed and blocked by court cases in Belgium.
|
Site name |
Domain or URL |
Type of site |
Reason |
ISPs in Court Case |
Blocked By[3] |
Start date |
Resolution date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Pirate Bay |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright[4] | November 2011[4][6][7][8] |
Notes
Unilaterally blocked websites
These are the sites blocked by some ISPs in Belgium without any known related court-order. It is believed that these blockings are the result of pressure by the Belgian Anti-piracy Federation (BAF) who threatened ISPs of heavy legal fees should they not comply with their request.[9][10][11][12] The list of ISPs below is probably incomplete as each ISP can decide individually on the matter.
|
Case name |
Domain or URL |
Type of site |
Reason |
Blocked by[3] |
Start date |
Resolution date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Pirate Bay |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
December 2011[13] | |
| IsoHunt |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
unknown | Site moved to new domain in
October 2013[14] |
| KickAssTorrents |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
August 2013[5] | |
| BitSnoop |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
August 2013[5] | |
| ExtraTorrent |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
August 2013[5] | |
| h33t |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
August 2013[5] | Site moved to new domain in
December 2013[15] |
| monova |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
unknown | |
| TorrentReactor |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
unknown | |
| TorrentHound |
|
Torrent Indexer | Copyright |
|
unknown | |
| YifySubtitles |
|
Movie Subtitles | Copyright |
|
February 2016 |
Gambling regulations blocked websites
The list of blocked gambling websites is the only official publicly available and maintained blocklist in Belgium. The list is available on the official Belgian Gaming Commission website.[16]
References
- ↑ "10 JANVIER 2010. - Loi portant modification de la législation relative aux jeux de hasard" [10 January 2010. - Bill to amend the law regarding games of chance]. LOI - WET. 1 February 2010.
- ↑ Groen, Karen (30 November 2011). "Belgian Court of Appeal prefers DNS blocking over IP blocking". Future of Copyright. Amsterdam: Future of Copyright. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012.
- 1 2 DNS Lookups on ISP DNS Servers
- 1 2 "Het hof van beroep, zitting houdend te ANTWERPEN, EERSTE KAMER, recht doende in burgerlijke zaken, heeft volgend arrest gewezen: inzake: 2010/AR/2541, VZW BELGIAN ANTI-PIRACY FEDERATION, afgekort VZW BAF, met zetel gevestigd te 1200 Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, Almapleine 3 bus 10 en ingeschreven in de kruispuntbank der ondernemingen onder der nr. 0427.907.283" [The Court of Appeal, sitting in ANTWERP, FIRST CHAMBER, acting in civil cases, has issued the following judgment: regarding 2010/AR/2541, VZW BELGIAN ANTI-PIRACY FEDERATION, abbreviated as VZW BAF, with registered office at 1200 Sint- Lambrechts-Woluwe, Almapleine 3 bus 10 and registered at the companies crossroads bank under no. 0427.907.283] (PDF) (in Dutch). Antwerp: Hof van beroep, eerste kamer (Court of Appeal, First Chamber). 4 October 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Van der Sar, Ernesto (28 August 2013). "Belgian ISPs Quietly Expand Torrent Site Blockade". TorrentFreak.
- ↑ "Belgian ISP ordered to block The Pirate Bay; Telecomix and TPB Offer Workarounds". Slashdot. SlashdotMedia. 4 October 2011.
- ↑ Baker, Jennifer (6 October 2011). "Pirate Bay encourages filesharers to dodge Belgium block". Techworld. IDG UK.
- ↑ Ausloos, Jef (7 December 2011). "Belgian ISPs vs Internet Freedom". EFF: Electronic Frontier Foundation. Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- ↑ Van Mechelen, Christophe (17 November 2011), BAF Letter to ISPs (PDF) (in French), Brussels, Belgium: Belgian Anti-piracy Federation
- ↑ Van Mechelen, Christophe (17 November 2011). "BAF Letter to ISPs" (PDF) (in Dutch). Brussels, Belgium: Belgian Anti-piracy Federation.
- ↑ "La BAF fait chanter les fournisseurs d'accès pour étendre la censure internet" [The BAF blackmails ISPs to extend internet censorship]. NURPA (in French). Brussels: Net Users' Rights Protection Association. 5 December 2011.
- ↑ Lausson, Julien (6 December 2011). "Les FAI belges invités à bloquer The Pirate Bay pour éviter les frais de justice" [Belgian ISPs invited to block The Pirate Bay to avoid court costs] (in French). Numerama.
- ↑ "Les fournisseurs d'accès à Internet étendent la censure, sans base légale" [ISPs extend censure, without legal basis]. NURPA (in French). Net Users' Rights Protection Association. 19 December 2011.
- ↑ Gibbs, Samuel (30 October 2013). "Isohunt BitTorrent search engine back online". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited.
- ↑ Maxwell, Andy (10 December 2013). "H33T Back Online After Several Months Downtime". TorrentFreak.
- ↑ "Liste noire: Liste des sites de jeux interdits" [Blacklist: List of prohibited gaming sites]. SPF JUSTICE: Commission des jeux de hasard (in French). Commission des jeux de Hasard.