A dramatic decision at The Court of The Hague this week meant that two ISPs in the Netherlands were legally able to reverse their blocking of The Pirate Bay. The ruling, which was both welcomed and unexpected, is now having knock-on effects, with an emboldening Dutch Pirate Party preparing to reactivate a Pirate Bay proxy service they were ordered to shut down in 2012.

This week The Court of The Hague handed down its decision in a long running case which had previously forced two Dutch ISPs, Ziggo and XS4ALL, to block The Pirate Bay.

Finding that the block had proven ineffective and had restricted the ISP’s entrepreneurial freedoms, the Court ruled in the ISPs’ favor. In response the ISPs vowed to unblock The Pirate Bay immediately.

Needless to say, BREIN is bitterly disappointed and is currently investigating its options, which includes taking the case to the Supreme Court. But while BREIN plans its next move, other entities wrapped up in the whole Pirate Bay censorship debate are planning theirs too.

Moving into the spotlight as a potential beneficiary of this week’s ruling is former BREIN ‘victim’ the Dutch Pirate Party.

Following the original blocking ruling against the two ISPs, traffic surged to an existing Pirate Bay proxy (unblocking) service run by the Dutch Pirates. By unblocking The Pirate Bay the party were undermining BREIN’s efforts and as a result the anti-piracy group took the case to court. That action culminated in an April 2012 ruling from The Court of The Hague which ordered the Pirate Party proxy service offline with immediate effect.

With this week’s lifting of the injunction against Ziggo and XS4ALL, questions are now being asked about the validity of subsequent bans against the Pirate Party’s proxy and others that were issued on the back of the now-overturned ruling.

“You can not evade a judgment that does not exist,” Dirk Poot of the Pirate Party told Webwereld.

Mark Krul, a lawyer with of WiseMen Advocaten who worked with the Pirate Party in its fight against BREIN, informs TorrentFreak that while the ruling offers promise there are still hurdles to be overcome.

“Now that the Court of Appeal has decided that the providers Ziggo and XS4ALL cannot be forced to block The Pirate Bay, this means that The Pirate Bay can be visited again by the Dutch public,” Krul explains.

“In this respect, there is no need for the Dutch public to use any proxy. But, since there are blockades of The Pirate Bay worldwide, there is still a need for proxies to ensure that internet users in other parts of the world have the freedom to decide whether they want to use a website such as The Pirate Bay or any other website.”

Stressing that the first proxy offered by the Pirate Party was an open one which gave users’ access to any blocked website, Krull says that this week’s decision by the Court of Appeal can only mean that offering even dedicated Pirate Bay-proxies is allowed. However, in the case of the Dutch Pirate Party he wants the court to say so.

“There still is a valid order from the Dutch court that says that the proxy is infringing the rights of the entertainment industry, represented by BREIN. And this order must be destroyed by the Court of Appeal,” Krul says.

“These proceedings will come to an end, probably by the end of this year. Unfortunately these proceedings take time. I am still reviewing the decision of the Court of Appeal to see if we can ask the court for suspension of the first court order in which the court decided the proxy is illegal.”

While things sound promising, Krul says that all of the decisions thus far only affect the parties involved and it is certainly possible that BREIN might try to have other Pirate Bay proxies shut down. However, in Krul’s opinion BREIN probably wouldn’t enjoy success.

“In my opinion, with the decision in the Ziggo/XS4ALL case, it is clear that a proxy is not illegal. But as said, BREIN is not totally defeated yet. They can – and probably will – take action against anyone offering services to visit The Pirate Bay. But then they will also have to act against other torrent websites such as Kickass.to and Torrentz.eu. This will of course be very complex to initiate.”

In conclusion, Krul says that this weeks Court of Appeal decision is “truly important” in light of fundamental rights to freedom of speech and the freedom to receive information.

“As a lawyer I am therefore very happy with this ruling,” he concludes.