Torrentspy Disables Searching For US IPs

dr_strang writes "Torrent indexing site Torrentspy.com appears to have disabled torrent searches for IPs that originate in the United States. Instead of a results page, users are directed to this page, which states: 'Torrentspy Acts to Protect Privacy. Sorry, but because you are located in the USA you cannot use the search features of the Torrentspy.com website. Torrentspy's decision to stop accepting US visitors was NOT compelled by any Court but rather an uncertain legal climate in the US regarding user privacy and an apparent tension between US and European Union privacy laws."

Comments

tor

[wpegden]

Did someone say tor?

Re:tor

[xtracto]

or... dare I say: Usenet?

So, why would you like to to run upon usenet? Do you plan to start a big flamewar about the Torrentspy blocking or anything?

something tells me you wont be desired there!.

Re:tor

[kebes]

Keep in mind that in this case you don't even have to use TOR for the actual torrent. You only need to use a proxy for the short time necessary to do a search on torrentspy and download the .torrent. After that, you can join the torrent in the usual way. After all, torrentspy only tracks torrents: it has no control over the swarm or what connections the swarm allows/blocks.

So, instead of a search taking 1 second it would take 3 seconds. The actual download would be just as fast. (That is, assuming you were willing to download a torrent without TOR before this block, then this block doesn't change your actual download speed.)

Also note that an easier solution is to switch to using a torrent tracker which does not block US users. For instance trackers not in the US (e.g. Pirate Bay) will probably not have any reason to block US users. In fact a tracker like Pirate Bay could mirror all of TorrentSpy's contents. Although this recent development is interesting, it will have little to no impact on the amount of downloading (or the ease of downloading) that goes on.

Re:tor

[blahlemon]

Most people don't participate in tasteless and foolish events like flamewars unless they need the approval of others. Yes, it happens at times but I'm sure it's never planned that way by Slashdot posters!

The Obvious Reason

[eldavojohn]

Torrentspy's decision to stop accepting US visitors was NOT compelled by any Court but rather an uncertain legal climate in the US regarding user privacy and an apparent tension between US and European Union privacy laws. From the Wikipedia page (and as linked on the related Slashdot articles):

On May 29, 2007, A federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to begin monitoring its users' activities and to submit these logs to the Motion Picture Association of America. TorrentSpy's attorney, Ira Rothken, has stated that TorrentSpy would likely turn off access to U.S. users before it started monitoring anyone, since such monitoring is in violation of TorrentSpy's own privacy policy.[1] As of August 24, 2007, TorrentSpy has been closed to United States users. Looks like they finally got around to it ... although it wasn't ordered by a judge, a US judge certainly left them no choice.

I wonder if this can be accessed from the United States through Tor.

I also wonder if I have to start worrying about other sites blocking American users simply out of fear & safety from the United States MPAA/RIAA run court system? I used to feel sorry for Chinese people who had to suffer from their government's censorship and now I have to wonder if I'm going to start suffering from other servers censoring me based on my government's actions.

Re:The Obvious Reason

[capnchicken]

The Congress shall have Power . . . To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Author and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; The pretense of this right is to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts not to protect a failed and obsolete business model.

Time for wiki-torrent

[superpulpsicle]

Someone create a privatized wiki-torrent where people can put up their own torrents. That way you can never be sued cause you're not responsible for the contents.

In other news..

[micksam7]

Non-US proxy usage skyrockets globally.

Re:In other news..

[yorugua]

Are US-based users going to start using china-based proxies??!?!? Did hell just freeze?

Re:In other news..

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm offering europe based proxy access to torrentspy for US citizens for 50 cents per search. 5 cents of every search goes towards helping starving artists in the states.

Move along

[scruff323]

Isohunt, Demonoid, The Pirate Bay, Mininova, (reincarnated) Suprnova. Shall I go on?