The Dutch Court of Appeals in The Hague has now confirmed (Google Translate) what the Internet has long known: blocking The Pirate Bay is ineffective. The court ruled Tuesday that the Pirate Bay block at Dutch ISPs XS4ALL and Ziggo must be lifted immediately.

The case against The Pirate Bay had initially been brought back in 2009 by BREIN, a Dutch intellectual property rights group.

“[The decision] is good for Dutch citizens, good for the Internet, and good for ISPs who can keep fulfilling their role neutrally,” XS4ALL spokesperson Niels Huijbregts said in a statement, as translated by PCWorld.

The ruling was informed by academic studies from Dutch research group TNO, Tilburg University, and the University of Amsterdam. The Tilburg and Amsterdam study, from August 2013, examined self-reported survey data from over 2,000 Netherlands-based Internet users showing that only a tiny amount have changed their ways as a result of the official ban.

“Overall, between 4 to 6 percent of all consumers have decreased their downloading as a result of the blocking, whereas for 94 to 96 percent of the population the blocking has had no effect on their behavior,” the researchers wrote.

In short, those who were downloading illegally before have likely either found legal alternatives, are downloading through other channels (cyberlockers and the like), or have figured out how to use a VPN or another tool to circumvent the ban.

BREIN said in a statement that it is considering whether it will file its final appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court.

"The verdict of the court is negative for the development of the legal online market because it needs protection against illegal competition,” BREIN Director Tim Kuik said in the statement. "The purpose of the blocking of The Pirate Bay of course is to decrease the infringements via The Pirate Bay. It is contradictory that the court finds that this goal indeed is achieved but then still rejects the blocking because users can go to other sites.”