AMSTERSDAM — In an attempt to protect the works of Stichting Brein, a group devoted to film and music copyright protection, a Dutch court has ordered filesharing website The Pirate Bay to remove all links to material produced by the group's members.

The order by the Amsterdam referral court was directed to the site's three founders, instructing them to "take off within three months all downloadable links that allow access to files representing the works of the members of Stichting Brein."

The founders, Frederik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholmmen, will reportedly be fined the equivalent of $7,500 dollars for each offence if they refuse to comply.

The founders, along with a fourth defendant, were found guilty earlier this year of promoting copyright infringement. The case, in which they were fined $3.5 million dollars and sentenced to one year in prison, is currently under appeal.

The website, however, which boasts 22 million members, continues to operate.

For their part, the founders claim to not have any control over the site's content and contend that they simply can't comply with the court's order, since they sold the site in 2006 to a Seychelles based company, Riservella.

"It's a bizarre story," Pirate Bay attorney Ernst-Jan Louwers said. "The court assumes that they're behind the site — end of discussion."