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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."

9 of 360 comments (clear)

  1. Bittorrent over 3G by nicolas.kassis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anybody actually do this? How many people really would do this at this time?

    1. Re:Bittorrent over 3G by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes but it's not about the practicality it's about the precedent and the principle. This is a fundamental shift in the attitude towards internet access where previously it was up to the user to decide what he should or shouldn't see and what might get him into trouble with the law for accessing. Now some manager at my ISP or even some unknown person working for/paying off a third party 'dangerous sites' list decides what my delicate little eyes are capable of handling.

      And they can fuck off right now.

      --
      Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
    2. Re:Bittorrent over 3G by Nossie · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Just to let you guys know....

      I work for Vodafone ... and we do support for their mobile broadband... under the 'voluntary code' even facebook is blocked under the content control bar that is placed on EVERY vodafone sim... even eminem cant be downloaded on mobile phones without this bar being removed.

      to get removed you need either a valid credit card or go into a vodafone store with proof of ID.

      So my question is.... does this come off when you remove the bar or what?

      And btw, if you use BT over 3G you are a fucking goon .... 1GB = £15, you'd be cheaper actually buying your stuff. On the flip side of this at least you can go into a vodafone store and have it removed *almost* anonymously with BT it would appear you have to have some form of address and a 'trackable' account.

      just my 2 cents - but its a total pita when people do not have a cc and cant access fricking FB

  2. Let me guess by cheros · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Voluntary code, no right of redress, zero transparency for your own protection, we have your best interest at heart (translated: we are scared of lawyers, and are too dumb to realise that by being selective we open the doors wide for missing the odd one and being held liable) etc etc.

    From the organisation that brought you Phorm (and didn't tell you), a new violation of their own service T&Cs.

    Lawyers, please sharpen pencils and expense account - BT has just dropped the soap in the shower..

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  3. Common Carrier Protection by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    BT want to police the internet? No problem.

    Get all the CP and bomb schematics you can folks; It's BT's fault for not preventing access, now.

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  4. Re:The link to solve the problem by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I didn't mean using TOR to route your P2P traffic through it, using it to access the page is what I meant.

    I'm fairly sure the great firewall of great britain is clumsily enough set to only block access to the port 0x50 traffic, so you should be fine once you have the hash.

    Aside from that, yes, China has the "Great Firewall". But they're too busy filtering anti-Chinese and anti-Communist stuff to care about petty things like our problems. Actually, the fun part is that China certainly doesn't mind if you accessed pages that your government considers "undesireable".

    I mean, think about how much your government cares about anti-Chinese pages.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Re:Ah so the IWF is after a power grab. by TobascoKid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But if the government starts to do it then (theoretically) there's somebody to hold publicly accountable for what ends up on the blacklist. At the moment, the IWF can block whatever they like and answer to no one.

    Even better, once the government starts doing it, they might end up being forced to start paying ISPs to do the filtering (like they're doing with the email spying). Then it becomes a target for eventual cuts in public spending and one day may quietly disappear.

    --
    At some point, somewhere, the entire internet will be found to be illegal.
  6. Get to the meat of the story... by JimXugle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How is this implemented?

    DNS?
    OpenDNS' IPs are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

    DPI?
    https://thepiratebay.org/

    --
    -jX

    Don't you just love politics? It's like a comedy of errors.
  7. Re:All the UK mobilecos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The website for the company I worked for was blocked too. The reason? A flatshare form on the site had the word "sex" (as in gender) on it. It was discovered when sales staff using laptops and Vodaphone mobile broadband couldn't demo our own site to clients without unlocking.