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BT Blocks Access To Pirate Bay
Barence writes "BT and other mobile broadband providers are blocking access to The Pirate Bay as part of a 'self-regulation' scheme with the Internet Watch Foundation. BT Mobile Broadband users who attempt to access the notorious BitTorrent tracker site are met with a 'content blocked' message. The warning page states the page has been blocked in 'compliance with a new UK voluntary code.' 'This uses a barring and filtering mechanism to restrict access to all WAP and internet sites that are considered to have "over 18" status,' the warning states. It goes on to list a series of categories that are blocked, including adult/sexually explicit content, 'criminal skills,' and hacking. It's not stated which category The Pirate Bay breaches, although the site does host links to porn movies."
nemesis. Home of an experimental fe code.
Please don't do this. TOR isn't designed to handle torrenting. If you need to browse TPB then by all means go for it, but torrenting over TOR only destroys the network as a whole.
On a side note, the thing about TOR that cracks me up is that most of the exit nodes always seem to land me in China. Shouldn't I want to avoid using IP addresses from China? What about that Great Firewall of China?
Please note that the Internet Watch Foundation has subsequently told PC Pro that, although it hosts information about the filtering scheme, it has no involvement with the filtering or the creation of the blacklist. This is down to the mobile broadband providers themselves.
block "adult" content by default, but will remove the block once you've proved you're over 18, usually by supplying a valid credit card number. T-Mobile even included Facebook in the block a year or two back. Dunno if they still do.
You forgot one -
google (filetype:torrent)
Kinda missed an important bit of that article there, didn't you? "BT's warning message advises customers to contact customer services if they want the block on the site to be lifted." You still get to choose.
They already have. The ISP I work for have been dropping any packets destined for sites on the IWF's blacklist for several years now.
I should clarify that most of us aren't happy about it, but a gentleman's agreement is in place that we can either do it voluntarily, or the government can make it a legal requirement and heap more trouble to implement.
Similar censorship is being introduced in Japan, in the name of protecting children with internet enabled mobiles from "harmful" web sites. I think you can opt out of their system, which unfortunately is not the case with BT.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Some months ago, when a bunch of stories starting coming up of large ISPs starting up voluntary schemes and trials and whatnot I actually left BT and moved to a smaller, friendlier ISP exactly with the expectation that this sort of thing would come to be.
*big pat on the back*
Shameless plug for my current ISP, ADSL 24 - cheaper (for the typical user), just as fast (maybe even faster), no traffic shaping, no blocking, no bullshit. Never got any problem with them.
By the way, last I checked, the ISPs to avoid at all costs in the UK (with regards to things like blocking and traffic shaping) where BT, Virgin and Tiscalli.
which unfortunately is not the case with BT.
You should be able to opt out of this blocking system (TFA claims this is the case - if someone knows otherwise, please say so, as that would be major news). The one you can't opt out of is the IWF blocking list that's on most ISPs (covers 95% of users), however that list doesn't cover adult sites (well, except for when they mess it up as with Wikipedia).
You can opt out of the IWF list, you just need to install Tor.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Or just use an ISP that doesn't use it... there are lots of them. Some have even sworn never to use it.
Bookmark this custom search, it's even easier.
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=003849996876419856805:erhhdbygrma&ie=UTF-8&q=&sa=Search
BT, and other telecos and ISPs, have never had 'common carrier' status. AFAIK the only organisations which have are those such as the Railways who transport physical goods.