In response to a court order handed down at the end of April, today TalkTalk became the latest UK ISP to block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. But even with this action the Europe-wide wave of blocking orders isn't letting up. This morning yet another European court ruled that in order to protect rightholders, two more ISPs should prevent their customers from accessing the site.

Following in the footsteps of Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere, Sky Broadband, BE and O2, today TalkTalk blocked access to The Pirate Bay.

The providers were responding to a High Court injunction which orders the country’s major ISPs to block subscriber access to the infamous torrent site.

Users trying to access the site are dealt with in a variety of ways. Some ISPs are directing users to an information page explaining why the site is blocked, while others are simply ‘black-holing’ the domain. TalkTalk have taken a slightly different approach by referring visitors to the website of the BPI.

But while the action in the UK is almost over (the only major ISP yet to block TPB is BT), there have been further blocking developments elsewhere in Europe.

Today the Helsinki District Court ordered yet more ISPs to begin blocking their customers’ access to The Pirate Bay.

This legal action to have the site blocked in Finland dates back to May 2011 when the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC) and the Finnish branch of the music industry group IFPI filed a lawsuit at the District Court.

Initially the groups demanded that local ISP Elisa should start blocking The Pirate Bay in order to protect the copyrights of their members. While Elisa initially refused, a subsequent court order in October 2011 forced them to comply and in January 2012 it was initiated.

A month after the first court order in November 2011, applications were filed to force two further ISPs – TeliaSonera and DNA – to take the same action as Elisa. According to IFPI, the subscribers of all three ISPs make up 80% of the total broadband market in Finland.

“The results for Elisa and Europe are encouraging,” said CIAPC chief Antti Kotilainen in a comment.

Although unblocking sites is easily achieved, Kotilainen feels that the measures put in place will be enough to deter the all but the most determined internet users.

“The average user will not be able to circumvent the blockade. In addition, the court order will have an impact on overall attitudes [towards infringement],” he added.

In other action against the site in Finland, the IFPI are suing the current administrators of The Pirate Bay. The lawsuit, also filed in the Helsinki District Court, demands that the operators of TPB stop facilitating the unauthorized distribution of music and pay compensation to rightsholders.