Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Blocking Pirate Bay Links In Messenger
RemyBR writes with an excerpt from an article at El Reg: "Microsoft has confirmed that users of its instant messaging app will not be able to send each other links to popular torrent site The Pirate Bay, citing malware fears. 'We block instant messages if they contain malicious or spam URLs based on intelligence algorithms, third-party sources, and/or user complaints. Pirate Bay URLs were flagged by one or more of these and were consequently blocked,' Redmond told The Register in an emailed statement."
They also block all posts containing the string 'no-ip.org' - I've ran into it myself, as I use my home server on a no-ip.org dynamic IP to host the occasional game and transfer files via HTTP. I just have to specify it by IP instead to get around the block. I don't know exactly why Microsoft blocks mention of no-ip.org, but it is concieveable that it might be used to host malware downloads which are then advertised via IM-spamming, so there is grounds for some legitimate reason there. Even if it does inconvenience me personally.
In the case of TPB though, there is no such excuse. If TBP hosts malware (And I'm sure there are a few files, given the volume there), it'll have to be something that requires downloading a torrent(/magnet) - and if you can't get infected just by visiting a browser-exploiting website, it fails as malware. Besides, anyone uneducated enough to follow IM spam links isn't going to know what a torrent client is. It seems far more likely that Microsoft are just doing a corporate favor for either an external company they want to maintain a good relationship with or one of their own divisions concerned about piracy.
So they block URLs, marking them as spam. Use a URL shortener, like t.co / bit.ly / what.ever, so you can bypass the scheme.
Out of the many many years I've been using TPB only once did I ever download a torrent that was an infection. It tunred out they were getting blasted with numerous ups by someone intending to infect others. All the infections from that particular campaign were taken down within 10 minutes of reporting them. So far as I've been able to see the moderating on that board is quite good considering what it is.