Belgium blocks 113 pirate domains, warez reinvent themselves as… poker

The French-speaking court of Brussels has blocked 113 domains of pirate sites (wawacity, zone-telechargement...). Operators have anticipated and are migrating to unlikely TLDs. Quick summary + what this changes.

Belgium has just taken action. The president of the French-speaking business court of Brussels ordered on July 3, 2026 the blocking of 113 counterfeit domains, including 37 linked to Wawacity. Result: wawacity.pizza, wawacity.rodeo, wawacity.taxi, wawacity.futbol, wawacity.motorcycles, wawacity.irish, zone-telechargement.meme, zone-telechargement.monster, the complete list is a festival of exotic gTLDs.

What this does

Belgian ISPs (Proximus, Telenet, Orange Belgium, Voo) must return a dead DNS or a warning page when a user types these domains. This is classic DNS blocking, which can be bypassed in 30 seconds with a public DNS (1.1.1.1, 9.9.9.9) or a VPN. In short, a friction, not a wall.

What is interesting

The operators of these sites did not wait for the decision: they had already anticipated the migration. Korben points out that they have clearly taken the lead by reserving even more obscure TLDs - and above all by diversifying the hosting. Some have even switched to .poker, a TLD originally dedicated to online gaming rooms. This is probably not a random choice: these registries often tolerate "grayed" domains better than the .com/.net/.org managed by Verisign.

What will not change

• Google's index will quickly return the new domains. Blocking gains a few days of friction, never more.
• Real pirate users already know alternative DNS and front-ends like Stremio.
• The rights holders' strategy remains: to play on fatigue and target the occasional general public, not the regulars.

What could change

The real legal lever is hosting (often Cloudflare in front, bulletproof hoster behind) and the advertising chain. As long as monetization remains possible via unregulated ad networks, a blocked domain = a replaced domain.

Nothing to test here - this is not a tool. Just a useful reminder: on the web, a national judicial block remains a zero-sum game against actors who live off the speed of migration.