Starting today, The Pirate Bay is no longer accessible for customers of the Irish Internet provider UPC. Subscribers who try to access the BitTorrent site get a notice informing them that it has been blocked following a court order in a case brought by Ireland's equivalent of the RIAA. The block has come as a total surprise, as the court proceedings in question appear to have been progressing under the radar. Surprisingly, UPC - who have opposed blockades in the past - have announced nothing.

In 2010 Internet provider UPC won a landmark battle against the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA)

IRMA took UPC to court after it refused to implement a three-strikes scheme, but the High Court sided with the ISP ruling that there are no laws that demand website blockades or file-sharers to be cut off.

This week, however, it transpires that both parties have been engaged in another court battle, one that has apparently been lost by UPC.

It appears that IRMA has taken UPC to court once again, this time with a concrete demand for the company to block access to The Pirate Bay. As a result, UPC users now see the following notice (removed, see update below) when they browse to The Pirate Bay.

“The Pirate Bay has been blocked. The website you are trying to reach is currently unavailable. Further to a request from IRMA, the Irish Courts have ordered UPC to block access to The Pirate Bay website.”

The first user reports of the blockade came in yesterday morning but at the time only a few customers were affected. As the day progressed, more and more subscribers were redirected to the blocking notification.

Blocked

Thus far UPC has yet to release a public statement, and according to user reports customer service representatives have not been briefed on the new change either. We were also unable to find a public record of the ruling, which appears to contradict a 2010 High Court verdict.

As noted, UPC has resisted IRMA’s demands to have The Pirate Bay blocked in Ireland in the past. However, the company’s Netherlands division was recently forced by The Court of The Hague to block the site after complaints from anti-piracy group BREIN.

Ireland is by no means the first country in Europe where the Pirate Bay is blocked by court order. Similar verdicts were previously handed down in the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Finland.

Despite the blockade, UPC subscribers can still use The Pirate Bay through proxy sites, as happened massively in the UK earlier this year. There, the proxy site operated by the local Pirate Party is now among the 250 most visited websites in the region.

The above shows that while these blockades may stop some people from accessing a site, the really determined have plenty of options. Also, of those who simply give up on accessing The Pirate Bay, many will simply switch to other torrent sites.

Proof of the ineffectiveness of the censorship attempts was recently highlighted by several Dutch and UK Internet providers, who claimed that BitTorrent traffic didn’t decline after the blockades were implemented.

In other words, blocking The Pirate Bay doesn’t appear to have the desired effect.

On the contrary, The Pirate Bay team believes that they benefit from the blockades and that all the press attention serves as promotion. And they may have a point as the BitTorrent site continues to break traffic records week after week.

Finally, it is worth noting that although ISPs over the water in the UK are also “forced” by court order to block The Pirate Bay, they have put up little resistance in court. UPC customers will be hoping that their ISP did rather more in this case.

Update: The mystery has been solved. UPC says the blockade was just a test. The company does not explain why IRMA or a court order were mentioned on the redirect page.

TorrentFreak received the following message:

“UPC Ireland’s position has not changed. UPC is not required by any court or authority to block the pirate bay and does not intend to voluntarily block the pirate bay. Periodically testing is carried out across our European network which may have been observed by Irish customers.”