On October 30, 2026, the Rotterdam District Court issued a ruling in the summary proceedings brought by BREIN against the Dutch ISP KPN, regarding the blocking of the two largest and most popular illegal book sites that are not yet blocked: the illegal services Z-Library and Oceanofpdf.
The sites contain tens of thousands of titles from Dutch rights holders, including books, (scientific) journals, sheet music, and newspapers. The case was heard on October 20. At the time the summons was issued, the illegal service Oceanofpdf was visited more than 200,000 times per month from the Netherlands; Z-Library even more than 300,000 times per month.
The Dutch copyright advocate BREIN summoned KPN in accordance with agreements made with the Dutch access providers in the Covenant on Blocking Websites. This covenant contains agreements regarding the manner in which access providers must block websites.
In short, if BREIN obtains a judgment against one access provider ordering the blocking of a website, the other access providers must voluntarily comply with this judgment as well. The covenant also stipulates that BREIN must summon the access providers in alphabetical order. This time, it was KPN’s turn.
Stichting BREIN (Dutch for “Brain”) combats Intellectual Property infringement on behalf of authors, performing artists, publishers, producers, and distributors of music, films, series, books, writings, visual arts, games, and interactive software. BREIN focuses on IP fraud taking place in or from the Netherlands, or that is (partly) directed at the Netherlands. Because infringement respects no borders, BREIN collaborates with local and international organizations in this endeavor.
Why it matters
BREIN requested a dynamic blocking order from the Rotterdam District Court. This was granted. This means that if an illegally blocked website changes its domain name, BREIN can also have this new domain name blocked, without having to go back to court first. Access providers must also block so-called proxies and mirrors of the illegal services. These are links to or copies of the blocked sites. This also applies to future proxies and mirrors. Previously, at the request of BREIN, the Rotterdam District Court ordered access providers to block the illegal book sites Library Genesis and Anna’s Archive.
Further reading
Rotterdam Court continues line with second ruling blocking illegal shadow libraries. Press release. October 30, 2026. Sticting BREIN
The Covenant on Blocking Websites. Published on the website of the House of Representatives, The Netherlands: https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/detail?id=2021D41853&did=2021D41853
