Court rules ISP blocking of Pirate Bay ineffective, lifts bans THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- A court has overturned a judge's order that had forced two Dutch Internet service providers to block access to BitTorrent search engine the Pirate Bay. A district judge had ordered the ISPs -- Ziggo and XS4All -- in 2012 to block the website from their customers at the request of anti-piracy campaigners. The ISPs took the case to the Court of Appeals in The Hague, Netherlands, which ruled in their favor Tuesday and reversed the banning order, theregister.co.uk reported. Blocking the Pirate Bay had not deterred users from using other BitTorrent network sites to illegally download copyrighted material, the appeal judges said, noting torrent traffic for copyrighted material had actually increased since the Pirate Bay blockade was put in place as users sought out alternative search engines. "The service providers' subscribers in any case mainly use proxies or resort to other torrent sites," the appeals court said. The blockade is therefore ineffective. XS4All, in a statement, called the decision a "victory for the free Internet." Anti-piracy group BREIN, which had sought the Pirate Bay banning order in 2012, criticized the appeals court decision. "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. BRIEN, which has been ordered by pay the ISPs legal costs, said it is considering appealing to the Dutch Supreme Court.