Belgium Bans Internet Archive’s ‘Open Library’ in Sweeping Site Blocking Order
The Business Court in Brussels, Belgium, has issued an unprecedentedly broad site-blocking order that aims to restrict access to shadow libraries including Anna's Archive, Libgen, OceanofPDF, Z-Library, and the Internet Archive's Open Library. In addition to ISP blocks, the order also directs search engines, DNS resolvers, advertisers, domain name services, CDNs and hosting companies to take action.
Traditional site-blocking measures that require local ISPs to block subscriber access to popular pirate sites are in common use around the world.
More recently, site-blocking requests have begun to target other intermediaries. This includes DNS providers, such as Google and Cloudflare, which were ordered to block sites in France, Italy, and elsewhere.
A few months ago DNS blocking arrived in Belgium, where several orders required both ISPs and DNS resolvers to restrict access to pirate sites. This prompted significant pushback, most notably Cisco’s OpenDNS ceasing operations in the country.
