France has become the latest country to block world's number one file-sharing site, The Pirate Bay, in an effort to defend copyright-protected content.

The ruling of the Grand Instance Court of Paris, published in IT magazine Numerama on Friday, ordered the countrys leading internet providers, including Orange, Bouygues Tlcom, Free and SFR, to ensure "all measures are put into place to prevent access (to the site) from French territory". In addition to the main site address, the court banned around 20 mirror websites and 50 proxy servers that allow users to download content from the Swedish site.

Now internet service providers have 15 days to prevent access to the file-sharing site, which some 28.7 percent of people in France visited at least once a month last year, according to anti-piracy group Alpa.

The court ruling follows legal action by the anti-piracy group La Socit Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques (SCPP), which represents some 2,000 music labels that brought the request before the court this year.

"This decision is another step in the fight against music piracy and one that strengthens existing similar decisions in the EU and worldwide," SCPP said in a statement.