Unblocking The Pirate Bay the Hard Way Is Fun

TheGift73 writes in with a link for those of you who like to do things the hard way. "Now that The Pirate Bay is being blocked by ISPs in the UK, millions of people have a new interest in accessing the site, even if they didn't before. The reasons for this are simple. Not only do people hate being told what they can and can't do, people – especially geeks – love solving problems and puzzles. Unlocking The Pirate Bay with a straightforward proxy is just too boring, so just for fun let's go the hard way round."

Comments

How about

[Anonymous Coward]

http://3259460367

Who needs to unblock anything...

Re:How about

[teh31337one]

Sorry, the web page you have requested is not available through Virgin Media.

Virgin Media has received an order from the Courts requiring us to prevent access to this site in order to help protect against copyright infringement.

If you are a Virgin Media home broadband customer, for more information on why certain web pages are blocked, please click here.

If you are a Virgin Media Business customer, or are trying to view this page through your company's internet connection, please click here.

Re:How about

[Anonymous Coward]

You're doing it wrong.

The easy way

I've already used it twice since Virgin Media added the block.

Re:How about

[Intrepid imaginaut]

Indeed, proxies and workarounds are treating the symptom not the cause. These challenges to our web freedoms need to be tackled at the source, politicians made aware that its a substantial vote-garnering issue, and the system itself made to do its job and serve the people not corporations.

Re:How about

[Stalks]

This doesn't work because the web server is redirecting the browser to the standard address.

> wget http://3259460367/
--2012-05-07 09:33:48-- http://3259460367/
Resolving 3259460367... 194.71.107.15
Connecting to 3259460367|194.71.107.15|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently
Location: http://thepiratebay.se/ [following]
--2012-05-07 09:33:48-- http://thepiratebay.se/

Re:How about

[Anonymous Coward]

Works for me. I guess Talk Talk's blocking is a bit less restrictive?

Re:How about

[Anonymous Coward]

[quote]These challenges to our web freedoms need to be tackled at the source, politicians made aware that its a substantial vote-garnering issue,[/quote]

Internet freedom* is NOT a vote-garnering issue. Geeks are a minority and only a tiny minority of geeks even understand the Internet well enough to form considered opinions about it and the laws surrounding it. Most people, especially the non-technical ones, are subjected to a neverending barrage of ill-informed news stories about hacking, piracy, credit theft, child porn, and online terrorist plots. REALLY, which side do you think is going to be easier for the average person to understand? Complex issues of software freedom or simplistic bogeymen?

*You're on Slashdot and you just confused the Internet and the web. Shame.

Re:How about

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think talk talk is blocking TPB yet.

Funny that, seeing as how Talk Talk were the most enthusiastic about blocking sites.

Re:How about

[kbx911]

awesome that worked "Easy way" hahahh and 4 days ago i installed some 5-6 stupid programs and never even got around to understanding them, lulz, thanks man, this is just too simple

*facepalm*

[Anonymous Coward]

Using a proxy is too easy... using google search as a proxy is u83r 1337 and sooooooooo different.

Re:*facepalm*

[Master Moose]

I was reading this guys post and looking for the "Hard Way" around the precautions put in place by the ISP. . Still looking, or do I need to do a google translate search of the page to find it?

Re:*facepalm*

[multicoregeneral]

It's kind of silly. I don't see how any of these (we've been using them for years at work) techniques are any more technical than a proxy, other than they kind of suck. You'll end up with broken links, images you can't see, and what not. With a proxy, you'll sometimes have speed issues, but the pages are usually complete. Something else you can do if you're not searching for new releases is go to archive.org. I think you would be shocked to find how complete their copies of pirate bay have been over the years.

I wonder, with over two centuries of completely retarded laws in England, does anyone actually take anything the government puts out seriously? The pirate bay blocking isn't the only dumb thing they've done lately. There's also the indecipherable cookie legislation that goes into effect this month that makes website operators responsible for asking permission for all cookies. Dumbasses.

Re:*facepalm*

[jones_supa]

Before reading, I was thinking the article was about tuning some TCP/IP parameters or similar to confuse the actual blocking mechanism, thus letting you use the address normally.

Re:*facepalm*

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy solution: stop handing out cookies to people who haven't logged in. What you should have been doing all along.

Re:*facepalm*

[Intrepid imaginaut]

While you're right, I think the cookie thing was an EU sponsored piece of legislation.

Re:*facepalm*

[xaxa]

While you're right, I think the cookie thing was an EU sponsored piece of legislation.

Although our wonderful media often overlooks it, remember that British MEPs probably voted in favour of the legislation (I'm sure it should be linked somewhere from here, but I can't find the voting record).

(Also, I think it's a decent bit of legislation. I don't want my visit to a newspaper website to be known about (and tracked) by 10 third-party companies, like ad networks and Facebook etc.)

Re:*facepalm*

[foniksonik]

So how then does an ecommerce site keep track of the items you want to buy?

Now you will be forced to create an account to even think about shopping.

Maybe that's better. We'll find out.

Re:*facepalm*

[Creepy]

yeah - I was thinking it was something other than a proxy, but using google translate is a proxy, and when the US ever blocks pirate bay, google will block it too (sorry, I don't see this as an if - censorship will prevail, it is the American way).

Re:*facepalm*

[zlives]

my suggestion would be to have him run his own fiber/wifi/darknet whatever... at least his own dns... i mean linux installs can take upwards of 20 minutes

Re:*facepalm*

[Anonymous Coward]

php sessions or the equivalent, using the URL, IP tracking

what site doens't need an account for shopping? you can look up prices but if you're adding stuff to a basket, then you're probably going to buy it which means you need an account.

Re:*facepalm*

[mcgrew]

With an "I'll accept a cookie from this site" button on your browser, just like with pop-up blockers.

Re:*facepalm*

[DaVince21]

Finding the hash and converting it certainly is a lot more technical and convoluted than it needs to be. So if "The Hard Way" makes it this easy then there's nothing to worry about whatsoever... Especially when people will start figuring out "The Actually Hard Way'.

For those that do want the easy way...

[lattyware]

The Pirate Party UK is hosting a mirror (or acting as a proxy, not sure which): http://tpb.pirateparty.org.uk/

Re:For those that do want the easy way...

[Anonymous Coward]

There's also an HTTPS version, for those who don't want their ISP logging what they're searching for on the site:

https://tpb.pirateparty.org.uk/

why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple - just modify your host table and add in piratebay.com
no need for some silly DNS blocking

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[outsider007]

If your DNS is acting up you can just use 8.8.8.8 but I don't think what we're really talking about.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Tx]

That doesn't work, they're obviously doing more than just DNS redirecting. Entering the IP address directly or via your hosts file still gets redirected to the block page. Good guess, and it would be nice if everything in life was the simplest possible case, but sadly it isn't.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Blue Stone]

They use Cleanfeed, BT's transparent proxy.

It was created to block child pornography. Now it's also used to protect outdated business models.

When it was just blocking child porn, I dare say most people were OK with it. Now it's going to add 'copyright censorship'; soon, who knows what? Political sites, hate speech. And it'll gradually lose support and the means to circumvent its censorship will proliferate and become commonplace, making it entirely useless in doing the job it was designed for.

They're idiots. But that's not news.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

They may be idiots. But, they are externalizing the cost of their idiocy. And, in doing so, enabling further idiocy.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[kangsterizer]

Or not. It will become *accepted*.
When that mean won't be technologically sufficient, since the blocking will have been *accepted* (we blocked for 10 years already! etc.) they will change the mean to be stronger.

They're actually smart. It wouldn't work any other way. Smart but disgusting.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd love to hear what business model can possibly compete with stealing.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

One where you eliminate the middle man and sell directly from artists to customers, thus preventing the RIAA et al from stealing from its artists. It's inevitable really.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Lussarn]

I'd love to hear what business model can possibly compete with stealing.

Broadband taxation? if you pay 50$ a month you can download whaterver you want, no strings attached. We pay for (although very cheap) anonymization services today to use the internet as we see fit, so there are actually people making money from copying. I would gladly pay tenfold to get out of the relative clusterfuck that is Piratebay today. Let's face it, PB is no Netflix in terms of usability. But the content industry isn't interested, they still want 25$ per movie using DRM which takes hours to circumvent if you need play them on anything not sanctioned by them, while PB is offering movies in formats people actually can play. The industry is protecting what your parent said an "outdated bussiness model". They need to change, their former and hopefully future customers already have.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[ozmanjusri]

I'd love to hear what business model can possibly compete with stealing.

A predatory monopoly. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[omglolbah]

Make it easy to spend money.

My spotify subscription is well worth the money. I suspect I would still pay it if the fee doubled... (100 NOK a month is the current fee)

I have 70+ games on Steam because it is just so easy and convenient... Buying games on Sale is always great.

Cut the hassles of buying content and people will pay for it. It is impossible to get rid of all the piracy, but damnit, you can regain a huge market share by selling people the content they want, the way they want it.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

Works for me...

Soon to be Ex Virgin Media 'customer'

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is hardly Virgin's fault - they're following a court order.

In fact, they've been kind enough to redirect you to a page clearly stating that they were ordered to block the site, so that everybody knows something is up. Almost as though they want people to make a fuss about it. The obvious (and probably cheaper) alternative would just be to reject all connections to the IP, so people would assume it was a problem with the site, not their broadband.

Not affiliated with Virgin, and they're not even my ISP, but given the circumstances, I approve of the way they've handled it.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good guess, and it would be nice if everything in life was the simplest possible case, but sadly it isn't.

This is funny, because in Italy that's exactly the way the government decided to filter websites (including TPB): DNS. Just use a foreign DNS and you're good to go.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

The terms and use of the cleanfeed censorship hardware demand that it only be used to block child abuse material. This kind of censorship is against the agreed terms of use and the vendor should kill their contract...

The being said, you can't make hardware with political agendas. It does one thing well, and lots more similar things better. It's either censorship or not. Governments will lie lie lie lie.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone seems to be missing the easiest way to circumvent this block.

Swap your ISP.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[xOneca]

Yes. Choose one that doesn't operate in UK!!

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hey guys, I have the best idea EVER: in order to prevent the RIAA stealing from artists, let's steal from the artists instead! We're doing the artists a favor!"

Rationalize it however you want, the fact remains: you are not 'entitled' to a copy of any artist's music for free. If they wish to make it available for a low price, or for free, then you are entitled to take what you wish. If they say, "I'd like 99 cents for each copy of this song you want," then your choices, as an ETHICAL human being are:

1) Negotiate a different deal directly with the artist, if they're amenable to haggling;
2) Pay them the money they've asked for if you feel their price is reasonable;
3) Say "no thanks," pay them nothing, and support other artists whose pricing is better aligned with your ideology;

There is no alternative that can say, ethically, "Taking whatever the fuck I want is okay, as long as it hurts the RIAA - fucking the artist as collateral damage is okay."

"Eliminating the middleman" will not suddenly mean that every artist will distribute his or her music for free. Creation takes time, money, and effort, and the people involved in creation and distribution have rent, electricity, and food bills to pay.

Now somebody will trot out the "they'll still create, they'll just do it in their spare time," canard. It always sounds so reasoanble, but let's be honest: Soundcloud, myspace, facebook, etc. are full of pages for bedroom "DJ's" and wannabe-Dylans who objectively suck balls when it comes to musical or artistic merit. These same hacks are absolutely, straight-facedly convinced they're going to be the next dubstep wunderkind or plaintive populist folk-rock wailer.

Not everybody is equally talented when it comes to art, and as a culture, it behooves us to support the people whose art we value so that they can produce more of it. "Eliminating the middleman" so that the artist is compensated more fairly is a noble goal. Taking whatever you want against the wishes of others as a way of achieving that end is not.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

wow, not even paying attention to what this fight is about AND tortting out the same tired arguments the MAFIAA feeds you. Bravo.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

You do know that ethics and morals vary from society to society and in many cases even from person to person so your definition of ethics is yours and yours alone, others might not share it!

Over here in Sweden there is a "medium tax" on most storage mediums, that was orginally supposed to cover for any piracy related losses, government changed that law in 2006 but the medium tax is still present so personally I at least feel my piracy is ethical even if it's in dissonance with current government opinions.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hey guys, I have the best idea EVER: in order to prevent the RIAA stealing from artists, let's steal from the artists instead! We're doing the artists a favor!"

Rationalize it however you want, the fact remains: you are not 'entitled' to a copy of any artist's music for free. If they wish to make it available for a low price, or for free, then you are entitled to take what you wish. If they say, "I'd like 99 cents for each copy of this song you want," then your choices, as an ETHICAL human being are:

1) Negotiate a different deal directly with the artist, if they're amenable to haggling;
2) Pay them the money they've asked for if you feel their price is reasonable;
3) Say "no thanks," pay them nothing, and support other artists whose pricing is better aligned with your ideology;

There is no alternative that can say, ethically, "Taking whatever the fuck I want is okay, as long as it hurts the RIAA - fucking the artist as collateral damage is okay."

"Eliminating the middleman" will not suddenly mean that every artist will distribute his or her music for free. Creation takes time, money, and effort, and the people involved in creation and distribution have rent, electricity, and food bills to pay.

Now somebody will trot out the "they'll still create, they'll just do it in their spare time," canard. It always sounds so reasoanble, but let's be honest: Soundcloud, myspace, facebook, etc. are full of pages for bedroom "DJ's" and wannabe-Dylans who objectively suck balls when it comes to musical or artistic merit. These same hacks are absolutely, straight-facedly convinced they're going to be the next dubstep wunderkind or plaintive populist folk-rock wailer.

Not everybody is equally talented when it comes to art, and as a culture, it behooves us to support the people whose art we value so that they can produce more of it. "Eliminating the middleman" so that the artist is compensated more fairly is a noble goal. Taking whatever you want against the wishes of others as a way of achieving that end is not.

So how well does it pay working for the *AA?

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

Over here in Sweden there is a "medium tax" on most storage mediums, that was orginally supposed to cover for any piracy related losses, government changed that law in 2006 but the medium tax is still present so personally I at least feel my piracy is ethical even if it's in dissonance with current government opinions.

When you take what you want, against the wishes of those who are producing what you're taking, don't be surprised when they find a way to take something back from you in compensation. There is no *ethical* defense for a "medium tax," either, as that amounts to the RIAA or its Swedish equivalent taking shit from you regardless of whether or not you're okay with it, and whether or not you have ever pirated; But since people ARE taking shit they're not entitled to, the labels can claim they're victims, and get government welfare to "right the wrongs" being perpetrated on them.

There's this saying... how's it go... "two wrongs make a right." No... "Two rights are wrong." No... "Two wrongs don't make a right." And it's fully applicable in this case.

Don't like the RIAA? STOP FUCKING SUPPORTING THEM, AND ARTISTS WHO DO BUSINESS WITH THEIR MEMBER LABELS, and stop creating any sense of demand for their products. I don't care how badly you want that new Coldplay, Skrillex, or Britney Spears album, don't fucking buy it, and don't fucking steal it. Write the band and say, "Man, if you guys were indie, I'd gladly fork over $15 directly to you for your new CD, because I love your music, but I won't give you a cent when 90% of what I pay is going to line the pockets of your record label executives. And I won't steal it, because I won't give your shitty label ammunition to support their arguments for government welfare."

There is tons of music out there. The internet makes it easier than ever to find them. Find and support independent artists directly. Buy their cds. Go to their shows. Buy their t-shirts. Tell your friends. Encourage the artists to stay independent. But stop buying label shit, and stop stealing it.

Re:why not just modify your host table?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, thanks for quoting back everything I wrote. It's funny, you'd think in all that cutting and pasting, maybe you'd have read the part where I said,

"Eliminating the middleman so that the artist is compensated more fairly is a noble goal."

I can certainly see how you might think that this is an expression of support for the RIAA. But only if you're a thick cunt with no reading comprehension, or I guess if it's Opposite Day.

In closing, get stuffed, you prime douche.

What a joke

[slimjim8094]

When I read "the hard way", I expected something at least as sophisticated as Tor, but this is just stupid. Their suggestion is to use Google cache and copy the magnet link.

Please.

Re:What a joke

[Baloroth]

I'm pretty sure that is the hard way, compared to Tor.

Re:What a joke

[girlintraining]

use Google cache and copy the magnet link.

That's not making a direct connection, that's just using cached data. The entire point of defeating censorship in this fashion is to prove that as long as a connection can be made between A and B, and a connection can be made between B and C, then even if a connection cannot be made between A and C, it can still be routed through B. That's how the internet was designed to operate.

Unfortunately, as more and more money is waved around with the demand that it not work this way, increasingly sophisticated technological solutions will have to be employed to maintain these links. At some point, thanks legislators being sock puppets for those wealthy interests, the only way to ensure democracy electronically will be to deploy tools that allow people doing things far, far, worse than downloading music to have effective anonymity and realtime communication.

These commercial interests will be responsible for the widespread deployment of encryption, steganography, and analysis-resistant forms of communication that will allow terrorist, child abusers, and all manner of truly bad people to disappear into the shadows. The internet as it is designed now can effectively screen for those types of problems, because bypassing surveillance results in network traffic that is statistically different. Efforts by Homeland Security and other similar organizations worldwide can thus be seen as promoting terrorism, organized crime, and child abuse -- the very reasons they offer up for control of the internet. If they'd just limited themselves to those factors, we would have effective controls that caught just them... but when you're using such technology to catch hundreds of millions of people, and restrict their daily activities... some of them will design effective safeguards against such measures and deploy them via word of mouth.

It's like the war on drugs: If they'd just kept it to truly harmful drugs like cocaine and heroin, those drugs wouldn't be easily accessible... but because they went after anyone who recreationally takes drugs, they made everyone their enemy... and no matter how wealthy or powerful your organization, you can't beat 100,000:1 odds.

Re:What a joke

[Pausanias]

Opera mini or turbo mode is the easiest way isn't it? No config required.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey now, heroin and cocaine are not dangerous. I take great offense to your post. Alcohol is far more dangerous than both heroin and cocaine combined, and there are so many deaths caused by alcohol it's not even funny.

Heroin is actually a particularly weak opiate when you compare it to some of the other legal opiods that people are taking/abusing. Hell, even my prescription of Oxymorphone is 10x stronger than morphine and 4x stronger than heroin, yet it is perfectly legal to obtain by going to the doctor. Heroin gets a bad rap because it's cheap and that makes it a good choice for junkies. Opiates are actually pretty safe drugs to use. The only long term side effect is addiction, and there are no side effects that are detrimental to your health. It's just dumb kids and junkies that run out of their drug of choice, withdrawal for a few days, have their tolerance drop tenfold, and then inject their old dose that OD. Yes, the addiction part is bad and yes, they are extremely addictive, but after a week of not using them you return to your normal self. They are not "harmful" like you've been brainwashed to think.

Cocaine is a pretty unique drug, but it's relatively safe as well. It's not an amphetamine, but it feels pretty similar. Kids are prescribed amphetamines like Adderall all the time. My GF has a prescription for it, and it is fun to take once in a while, but you would really need to take an absurd dosage to make it dangerous. Yet, millions of people are legally taking prescription meds that act very similarly to cocaine, and no one even cares.

So, we have the general population like you who are brainwashed into thinking drugs are bad because the media/government told you so. It's sad that we legally prescribe essentially the same thing that you consider a "harmful drug" to people all the time and it's ok, yet when someone mentions heroin or cocaine, everyone acts like someone who uses those is some scumbag criminal. People are going to use drugs whether they be legal or illegal. People are going to share files on the internet, whether they make it illegal or not. It's the same principle at work. And you are applying the same brainwashed logic to drugs that the policy makers are applying to filesharing, and it sickens me.

Re:What a joke

[girlintraining]

Hey now, heroin and cocaine are not dangerous. I take great offense to your post. Alcohol is far more dangerous than both heroin and cocaine combined, and there are so many deaths caused by alcohol it's not even funny.

A third of the population abuses alcohol, and most everyone has used it. If heroin and cocaine enjoyed the same level of use... let's just say population control wouldn't be an issue. The danger of a drug isn't based on how many people die from using it, but how many people per capita

They are not "harmful" like you've been brainwashed to think.

I've known people who have overdosed on cocaine and heroin. Known is the operative word here. I've known people who have used painkillers as well, myself included: We're all still alive. It isn't to say they aren't addictive, and they can't destroy a person's life -- but its toxicity and death rates simply aren't in the same league. I don't care to get into why this happens, or if drug A is stronger than drug B -- empirically, heroin and cocaine eventually kill most of its 'patients'... the legal stuff doesn't.

et, millions of people are legally taking prescription meds that act very similarly to cocaine, and no one even cares.

Do you know what the difference is between LSD and Strychnine? Nothing; They're chemically identical, save that one is left-handed and the other right-handed. One will kill you in minutes... the other is a hallucinogen that (by itself) is relatively safe. The difference between MDA and MDMA is another very minor chemical difference -- they both feel the same, but one gives you a heart attack and you die, and the other gives you a euphoric high. The fact that drugs are "similar" to one another doesn't mean they are similarily dangerous... You're engaging in a logical fallacy there with potentially lethal consequences for anyone who you convince of that.

So, we have the general population like you who are brainwashed into thinking drugs are bad because the media/government told you so. It's sad that we legally prescribe essentially the same thing that you consider a "harmful drug"

I don't consider something harmful because I heard about it on the evening news: I consider it harmful because medical experts, who have published peer-reviewed papers on it, and who's clinical expertise mirrors my personal experience, say that the above-mentioned drugs are dangerous. You will not find anyone with a license to practice medicine that will agree with you.

Re:What a joke

[cranky_chemist]

"Do you know what the difference is between LSD and Strychnine? Nothing; They're chemically identical, save that one is left-handed and the other right-handed."

Uh... no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strychnine

Not only are those two compounds NOT enantiomers, they don't even have the same chemical formula (C20H25N3O vs. C21H22N2O2).
 

Re:What a joke

[rohan972]

the only way to ensure democracy electronically will be to deploy tools that allow people doing things far, far, worse than downloading music to have effective anonymity and realtime communication.

Lobbyists! Is there no way to stop them?

Re:What a joke

[izomiac]

Alcohol, cocaine, and heroin are all dangerous. Cocaine especially, as it's prone to causing coronary vasospasm, which causes 10% of illicit drug related deaths. Heroin and opioid-based pain killers stop your breathing, although many of those overdoses tend to be intentional (or are least likely so... it's hard to tell given how depressed most heavy users are). Both of these cause all manner of psychological impairments with regular use. Obviously the users rarely notice, but their families or (potential) employers tend to.

Stimulants, like Adderall or Bath Salts are becoming a big problem because they cause psychosis. Some of the synthetic canniboids (e.g. Spice) do this as well. Just last week I was talking with a network engineer who was crawling in the middle of the street screaming that he was "going to the desert to find Jesus". While that's not particularly unusual (about 2-3/day in my city), he was unique in that he only drank a reasonable amount of alcohol (3-4 drinks/month), used nothing else, and had no psych history. The most likely explanation is that he got his drink spiked when he went to a bar (last thing he remembered), and given the negative toxicology screen and other labwork, it was definitely one of the newer synthetic drugs (probably bath salts).

Re:What a joke

[dryeo]

A third of the population abuses alcohol, and most everyone has used it. If heroin and cocaine enjoyed the same level of use... let's just say population control wouldn't be an issue. The danger of a drug isn't based on how many people die from using it, but how many people per capita

A hundred+ years ago Cocaine and Opiates (mostly morphine) were very popular, with quite likely 1/3rd of the population using one or the other. Coca wine was very popular amongst the upper class and morphine was used by many. You could go into any drug store and purchase them for cheap or if you were the Queen you used the expensive stuff. People did not die just like most people don't die of alcohol abuse but if you hang out in the right places it seems to be a killer. I've known a lot of people who have died from alcohol abuse and none who have died from any other drug.
Most of the problems with both heroin and cocaine are caused by prohibition. Especially with heroin, you don't know what you're getting and if used to weak formulations a strong formulation can easily kill and cocaine has been concentrated to the point of being dangerous.
Cocaine use amongst doctors used to be very common before the procurement procedures were tightened up and doctors would be prescribing morphine or heroin much more if not for the legal implications. Shit, my Aunt was given Heroin by a doctor in a hospital when she was in labour which would have been in the late '60's.
It's the puritans that have pushed all the prohibition bs and have this attitude that if you need a crutch to get by then you're a failure. Personally I need a few crutches, the most addicting being my glasses.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

You have no idea what you are talking about

Re:What a joke

[gl4ss]

heroine and cocaine did enjoy the same level of use during a population boom in early 20th century, in some parts of the world even higher(because weekly drinking was considered expensive and it was).

per capita you'd be amazed about how many people die directly and indirectly from alcohol. go to your hospitals intensive care ward for "internal diseases"(or whatever the translation) and a lot of dying folk there are dying basically from drinking. it's accepted usually as the cost of living, most people starting to die from alcohol abuse don't even stop.

the reason alcohol is legal is that it's so simple to make, it's not like banning it wasn't tried(we had prohibition in finland too! and cocaine and heroine from doctors to 50's..)... if you could cook cocaine so simply from basic human necessities it too would be legal. if coca leaves would be simple to pick up from your local forest chewing on them would be legal as well.

Re:What a joke

[just_a_monkey]

You will not find anyone with a license to practice medicine that will agree with you.

True. But I think that is mainly because - at least in my country (with government healthcare monopoly, and near-total commitment to the War on Drugs) - anyone with a license to practice medicine who was found to be pro-narcotics would find his career to be stalled or over.

Re:What a joke

[Digital Vomit]

the reason alcohol is legal is that it's so simple to make

I'd have to disagree on that one. Growing pot is far easier than making alcohol, yet it's illegal.

There have to be other reasons...

Re:What a joke

[sudon't]

"I've known people who have overdosed on cocaine and heroin. Known is the operative word here. I've known people who have used painkillers as well, myself included: We're all still alive. It isn't to say they aren't addictive, and they can't destroy a person's life -- but its toxicity and death rates simply aren't in the same league. I don't care to get into why this happens, or if drug A is stronger than drug B -- empirically, heroin and cocaine eventually kill most of its 'patients'... the legal stuff doesn't."

The difference is that pharmaceuticals have a known purity and dose. Many pharmaceuticals are much more toxic than heroin, such as Fentanyl, whose dose is measured in micrograms. Most overdoses are experienced by people who've quit, usually involuntarily, lowering their tolerance, then made the mistake of using the same dose that they used before, or by people getting a much stronger dose without their knowledge. All problems resulting from prohibition. This happens less often with pharmaceuticals for, what I hope would be, obvious reasons.

"Do you know what the difference is between LSD and Strychnine? Nothing..."

First of all, no. It seems this Strychnine/LSD urban legend just won't die, even in the age of easy factual information. They are neither chemically similar, nor ever found together in a dose. Why would a dealer add a more expensive substance, (Strychnine), to a less expensive one, (LSD)? Nor is strychnine a by-product of LSD manufacture. The first poster is right about opiates being harmless. Poison is in the dose. Long term use of opiates causes no organic damage. What causes problems is prohibition - the artificial scarcity, with its resultant high prices, and all the, (I hope, obvious), dangers that come from a black market. Oh, and kiddo, I have some news for you about "published peer-reviewed papers"....

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Man I wish I had mod points. You're spot on. The poster above obviously has no idea what they're talking about.

Re:What a joke

[misexistentialist]

Had something to do with established business interests opposed to hemp paper in the early days before pot gained much market saturation.

Re:What a joke

[Cytotoxic]

One advantage alcohol has is that it is relatively easy to control your dose - relatively easy, not completely easy. Most people binge drink when first learning and there are some dangerous situations created because of that. But if you pace your consumption, alcohol can be self limiting (you tend to pass out before drinking too much - unless you are really slamming the shots).

Heroin and cocaine have the disadvantage of requiring small controlled doses - the more pure they are, the more difficult it is to reliably deliver the correct dose. Of course, absent prohibition this problem would be easily solved. In some South American countries you can get cocaine in ground leaf form at the grocery store - used to make a morning "coffee". Apparently it makes a good wake-up drink, perhaps better than coffee. Presumably pretty much impossible to overdose on that. Heck, I hear that foreign dignitaries visiting Bolivia get a drink of mate de coca as a part of the official state dinner.

Re:What a joke

[DrXym]

Problem with Tor is you end up using an exit node's DNS settings, so your request could still be blocked.

Re:What a joke

[MrNook]

Not true. There are hallucinogenic mushrooms ready for picking in meadows all over, but they're illegal to pick and consume.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I guess I shouldn't have said my first sentence. They are "dangerous" when they are in the hands of inexperienced people and those who don't fully understand the tolerance cycle and whatnot. Trust me, I know more about opiates than any person on here, and I can honestly say, they can be used pretty effectively in the hands of a responsible adult. So can alcohol. But alcohol has some seriously negative impacts on the body when used in excess. It also poses great risk to other people when someone who has been drinking gets behind the wheel. People get very aggressive on alcohol and tend to do dangerous things they wouldn't do before. I used to self-medicate by drinking all the time. Ever since I switched to taking clonazepam occasionally for anxiety and Oxymorphone for my inflammatory bowel disease, I have led a much better life with much more stability, better health, less pain, and less risk to other people. Tarnishing classes of drugs because of the small percentage of users that abuse it and suffer an ill fate is not a fair thing to do. If we did that with alcohol and nicotine, they would have been deemed illegal and highly dangerous a long time ago. Sadly, the most deadly drugs are legal whereas the least deadly ones like marijuana, opiates, LSD, etc. are illegal. It makes no sense.

hard way

[dezent]

Start a revolution, see you on the barricades!

*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[gman003]

Having RTFAd, the "hard way" boils down to... use Google Translate to access it.

How the hell does that qualify as "hard"? Or even, really, different from a proxy? I was using that exact* trick in fifth grade to get around stupid school filters (fun fact: blocking any page including the characters "xxx" makes it *really* hard to write a paper on Roman Numerals).

I was expecting something at least involving Tor or the like, or maybe some weird hosts file trick. Something actually, y'know, interesting.

* technically, it wasn't the "exact" same trick, as I was using Babelfish - I don't think Google Translate existed at the time - but it's close enough

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[Master Moose]

(fun fact: blocking any page including the characters "xxx" makes it *really* hard to write a paper on Roman Numerals)

XXX is what I would rate this article on a scale of I to C

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

You think that was a pain? Try writing a paper on carbon dating where the word dating is blocked.

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[Isaac Remuant]

The worst part is that they pretend that it's a smarter way in case of a more draconian future or something. It's still the SAME proxy method. I'm sure that if things went draconian they'd try to prevent Google (or anyone else) from serving you the data.

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[CimmerianX]

Try researching the "Mars explorer".

marS EXplorer.... lol

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[Baloroth]

Wow, thatS EXtreme.

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[Dangerous_Minds]

What did you expect? It's TorrentFreak. You can expect that what's on there isn't going to be that reliable to begin with.

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[mug funky]

the pen is mightier than the sword...

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[gmhowell]

I'll take 'anal bum cover for $7000'.

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[reub2000]

I remember babelfish was blocked on my HS's computers. Not so fun when I wanted to read a page in another language.

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[Amarantine]

Ah yes... I recall being unable to download a patch for the first Deus Ex game years ago, for the same reason. *sigh*

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[Suferick]

Be glad you don't live in Scunthorpe.

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[YokimaSun]

google translate is great, we need everyone on virgin to know theres a super easy way around virgins stupid censorship

Re:*That's* considered the "hard way"?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Jap anus relations" for...500?

Go for Venezuela

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a VPN based in Venezuela. There's no way Chavez would suck up to western media companies.

Re:Go for Venezuela

[Anonymous Coward]

Relying upon Chavez is an increasingly doubtful idea.

Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[asdf7890]

Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

The ISP I currently use (AAISP) are certainly not blocking it (see http://revk.www.me.uk/2012/05/blocking-pirate-bay.html for a blog entry oin the subject from one of the ISP's senior people), and no doubt many of the smaller ISPs are not either.

As (IIRC) TPB no longer runs a tracker at all and merely holds metafiles listing other trackers and/or distributed tracker links, this menas that all you need to get around the block is to use a friend's connection by proxy to get the .torrent file: once you have that you can dwonload an upload with merry abandon. This means that the block is pretty much pointless: if someone knew enough to know TPB exists and has the small amount of knowledge needed to get and use a bittorrent client, then they are going to know how (or have a contact who can help them) to access TBP by proxy in this way. Or, for that matter, just find another source for torrent metafiles and tracker facilities.

Is TPB really that relevant any more anyway? I've not been to any such site in many a moon so I might be completely out of touch, but I was under the impression that people were moving more towards private trackers and even ignoring that there are many small public trackers and aggregators available as alternatives. If my understanding is right and TBP is just a name that everyone knows rather than a site many people use, then this has as little effect as taking down napster: by the time it was taken down most people had other sources lined up anyway.

Off topic: while I'm linking to RevK, you might find his attitude and actions towards telemarketting amusing: http://revk.www.me.uk/2010/07/what-moron.html

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Idetuxs]

I still use TPB, and I know there are more websites to search for torrents, but despite being the largest one, TPB it's a symbol of resistance.
When and if it's taken down, it will be a major lost for Pirates. MHO.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[ehlo]

Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

The ISP I currently use (AAISP) are certainly not blocking it (see http://revk.www.me.uk/2012/05/blocking-pirate-bay.html for a blog entry oin the subject from one of the ISP's senior people), and no doubt many of the smaller ISPs are not either.

The reason for this is that it would have been too costly and time-consuming to bring an action against every last ISP in the UK. It sufficed to go after the six main ones because they hold 94% of the UK internet users, which I assume they felt was 'good enough'.

From the first line of the judgement:

Dramatico Entertainment Ltd v British Sky Broadcasting Ltd [2012] EWHC 268 (Ch)

Judgment

Arnold J.:
Introduction

1 The claimants are record companies claiming on their own behalf and in a representative capacity on behalf of the other members of BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Ltd (“BPI”) and Phonographic Performance Ltd (“PPL”). The Defendants are the six main retail internet service providers (“ISPs”). Between them they have a fixed line market share of some 94 per cent of UK internet users. By this claim the claimants seek an injunction against the defendants pursuant to s.97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (“the 1988 Act”), which implements art.8(3) of European Parliament and Council Directive 2001/29/EC of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (“the Information Societ

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Pentium100]

I've not been to any such site in many a moon so I might be completely out of touch, but I was under the impression that people were moving more towards private trackers and even ignoring that there are many small public trackers and aggregators available as alternatives.

I do not like private trackers because of their ratio enforcement. I have a good connection and I really seed torrents to a large ratio (usually 100 or more, sometimes only 2 or so if I did not like what I downloaded and want to delete it as soon as possible to make space), but since private trackers force everyone to have good ratio, everybody seeds and nobody downloads. Because of that, if I download a torrent, it s very likely that I won't be able to get good ratio because nobody will want to download from me. So, instead I have to download what is popular (instead of what I want) to build up the ratio and then later I can download what I want. So, I usually go to TPB or other public places first and use private trackers only if the public ones do not have that torrent.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Anonymous Coward]

try making a guess as to what is going to be popular and seed that (even if you dont want to necessarily watch it-just for the stats).....newer stuff would be a good bet

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Anonymous Coward]

If your private tracker(s) offer RSS, use flexget to grab popular TV shows (xvid or the new x264 standard, not 720p), and you can easily keep ratio up off people downloading it the next morning. You just add as many popular shows as you need to support your average weekly downloads and desired ratio.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Pentium100]

This is why I prefer the public trackers - I do not need to fill the hard drives with stuff that I don't like just so I can download what I like.
The only "real" private tracker I use organizes freeleech and some torrents are free all the time, so I use those to increase the ratio, or just wait until freeleech to download what I want. The other ones are semi-public, so there are more downloaders and it is quite easy to have a good ratio.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Vegemeister]

So was Supernova. People moved on.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[omglolbah]

Keep the stuff seeded for longer.

Sometimes the old stuff will have drive-by downloads months after being published (assuming the tracker has that old files).
If I still have the archives, I keep it seeded. Doesnt matter that you have 50 torrents seeding if only 2-3 are active.

I have yet to have an issue gaining ratio on any site using this way of thinking.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Pentium100]

The problem is initial uploads. If I have enough uploaded already I can download the file and keep it for a few months, I am already doing it with the public torrents. But the initial ones are really difficult, because if I tried that with my first torrent on that tracker, I would be banned before I got the chance to upload.

I still use private trackers, but I check the public ones first - there is no advantage in using a private tracker if the same files are available in a public one.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[negge]

This (seeding forever on public trackers, sometimes reaching a ratio of over 100) is exactly what gets people busted by the MAFIAA. Whenever I use public trackers (which is not very often) I immediately stop the torrent once finished. I hate to be the fagget that quits seeding immediately but this is just the way it is.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Pentium100]

I don't live in the US. In my country, while piracy is illegal, nobody cares about it. The local MAFIAA equivalent cannot even do anything to a big local private tracker, the owner of which is well known. Later Microsoft together with that agency sued ~100 people for downloading Windows 7, they lost the case on the grounds that uTorrent screenshot is not admissible evidence because uTorrent was not certified for evidence gathering (the police radars, for example, are certified and the certificate has to be renewed every year or so after inspecting the device).

I use peerblock though.

Hell, ISPs themselves run DC hubs (mine runs a modified ed2k server) and FTP servers. Those are only accessible to the clients of that ISP, so I guess they do it to reduce the traffic to outside.

I have a fast connection and want to see it used, but do not want to download stuff I do not like for the sake of uploading.

And my ratio sometimes reaches over 1000 if the torrent is popular enough or I get it very soon after release.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[atisss]

So in order for uTorrent to be accounted as evidence you would have to download with certified version? :D

What country is that? :P

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Pentium100]

Lithuania.

The relevant article: http://torrentfreak.com/court-acquits-bittorrent-user-citing-faulty-evidence-100315/

As I understand it, the police would have to use software that has been certified for evidence gathering, the creators would also have to approve it for such use. Because, you know, the one thing that software creators like to claim is that their software is not suited for anything (most of the EULAs state so) and that there are no guarantees.

Also, a few authors chose that tracker to promote their work. Pretty much like some use TPB for that.

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Anonymous Coward]

In other news, the small 6% ISPs are expecting massive growth in the next year...

Re:Only the larger ISPs are blocking it, it seems.

[Stoopiduk]

Unless you got sucked in by the lovely bandwidth at Virgin Media, then they throttle the crap out of you for torrenting. Uploads sit at a shiny zero, which makes private trackers an issue if share ratios are enforced.

Should have read the small print.

You ever see...

[Genda]

A guy driving without license or registration, they just look suspicious, driving too careful, looking around, freaking out when a police car appears. When will people get it (including governments) when you have nothing to hide, when you aren't provoking a stupid reaction from the universe at large things go well. Case in point, screwing with people's freedom of choice is just wrong. You erect a wall in the middle of a highway, and pretend business as usual. Sorry, it doesn't work that way/ First you draw incredible unwanted attention. Then you start pissing off the locals. Finally, you inspire them in huge numbers to profound acts of civil disobedience.

Let's face it. There are two kinds of infringing acts perpetrated against media producers. 1. Illicit copy by the general public and 2. Illegal mass manufacture by bootleggers in developing countries. For the first shut up, leave them alone. Every single iota of evidence suggests the folks doing the heaviest bootlegging are your best customers and they're just sampling you're wares before going out and buying the friggin' 3D Blueray. They just want to know if this film or game or song is crap or worth adding to their huge collections. You want to sell more media, stop foisting heavily mass marketed feces on the public, and for the luv-o-jebus STOP KILLING THE GOLDEN GOOSE!!! as for number 2. Its the third world, how many copies of your movie, or song or game were you planning on selling in Mogadishu anyway? If your film is preventing kids from being on the street and ending up being co-opted into death squads, nominate yourself for a friggin Humanitarian award and figure out some way to monetize it. In either case, you haven't got a single logical leg to stand on, other than y'all are greedy control freaks who want to squeeze every last drop of blood from every human being with eyes and ears. Enough already. Call it a day. Your behavior has been reprehensible, your logic brain damaged, and you keep trying to force the earth to spin backwards. Figure out the world as it is, bring in people with functioning brains and hearts to create new business models and thrive like you never have before. Get a clue, hell get two, they're small.

Re:You ever see...

[Caesar Tjalbo]

I'm from The Netherlands. Copyright here is defined as the exclusive right of the creator of a work to publish and duplicate it. With that definition comes the rest of the copyright law and then there's additional laws, treaties and rulings but the basis is more or less the same everywhere.

If you want to look at it in a reasonable way, as you seem to do, you might notice that things are a bit different compared to the analog world with regards to publishing and duplicating. Just a silly example: in order to merely see the copyright notice on a website, you already have made a copy of it.

I think the, let's say, war on piracy is just a symptom of a larger fight. I think it's about keeping copyright and all that comes with it. The exclusivity, the rights, the financial systems.

I think that copyright mechanisms as we know them are no longer sustainable. And I can't wait to see what happens if 3D printers become normal household items because publishing blue prints of patented items or Mickey Mouse figures is stealing or destroying the job creators.

But before the world at large understands how disruptive digital technology has become, I expect a lot more attempts of the rights holders to cling to their precious 'intellectual property'. And that's in a deeper sense than just 'fighting piracy'.

Re:You ever see...

[Anonymous Coward]

A guy driving without license or registration, they just look suspicious, driving too careful, looking around, freaking out when a police car appears.

I act like that with my license, registration, and inspection up to date. I just normally act like that. It isn't about having nothing to hide, it's about the fact that cops are not trustworthy. I've seen a person get pulled over by 5 cops for NOTHING...they let him go after harassing him for hours. Each one kept takin turns asking him where's he from, what's he doing...They do this because they know if they keep going your likely to mess up your story to one of them and now they can arrest you.

The rest of your post I strongly agree with.

2600

[Anonymous Coward]

*looks around* Where am I?

Pfft. That's still the easy way.

[VortexCortex]

These folks claiming to be "unblocking The Pirate Bay the Hard Way" are still doing it the easy way. They want to do it the hard way? Rally a bunch of supporters and go to Parliament and MAKE them unblock it. Rouse friends and family in support of sharing of information (the BASIS OF HUMANITY) and don't let anyone forget who the bastards are that blocked it in the first place and why they should be voted out. Get some money together and run smear campaigns on the media networks if you dare.

"Oh that's too hard", yes well, that's why it's called the HARD way.
"Oh, I'll just use $NEXT_ON_THE_BLOCK_LIST tool or service to get around the censorship", not only are they not doing it The hard way, they're just plain doing it wrong.

If you want to unblock it the hard way

[7-Vodka]

If you want to unblock it the hard way.. Then you need to figure out how to take back control of your over-reaching 1984, police state government nightmare.

The hard way is to get involved and make real change and gain your Freedom so that you will never have anything like this proposed again.

Live Free or Die motherfuckers.

By the way, if you need help seeing what this looks like:
Ron Paul will show you the way.

Peace, out. Bitches.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[Nimey]

You talk pretty tough but I bet you're just as chickenshit as the rest of us.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[scourningparading]

Does saying that comfort you? Because it shouldn't. The fact that others are like you doesn't change what you are.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[Anonymous Coward]

Ron Paul signed a letter recently supporting actions targeted at specific websites like this one.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[Nimey]

The point being that I doubt parent's really willing to make the choice between "live free" or "die", big words aside.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[Anonymous Coward]

"Live Free Or Die" is the most brilliant piece of anti freedom propaganda ever created.

"Live Free or Use Your Life To Try To Obtain Your Freedom Without Actually Dying" strikes far more fear into the hearts of those trying to oppress you.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[Anonymous Coward]

Even when all choices are bad ones, you still have to choose.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[dkf]

Live Free or Die motherfuckers.

By the way, if you need help seeing what this looks like:
Ron Paul will show you the way.

The people who are really serious about "Live Free or Die" cover themselves in petrol and set fire to themselves to protest against injustice and oppression. Ron Paul? He's just another politician, full of words.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[Anonymous Coward]

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

-George S. Patton

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[Anonymous Coward]

Ron Paul offers freedom only to straignt, white, middle-class, American-born men. He has stated himself to be against civil rights legislation, women's reproductive rights, gay marriage/civil unions/whatever euphemism you prefer, et cetera. There is hardly a more regressive candidate you could choose. (Sure, many Republicans would love repealing civil rights laws, but how many are willing to publicly admit that they'd do it?)

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[7-Vodka]

Go spread your lies elsewhere fool.

Ron Paul is for Freedom of the individual. E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y's Freedom. Your accusations don't even make sense.

BuhBye. Thanks for playing the racist card. You lose.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[7-Vodka]

It's a shame you feel this way. You're ignoring 3 decades of his incorruptibility and fighting for Freedom. He was a man way ahead of his time. We are now catching up.

If you prefer, we can change the Live Free or Die statement to just Live Free.

In fact, that is now my new sig. in support of the modern Freedom movement. Thank you.

Re:If you want to unblock it the hard way

[Anonymous Coward]

Freedom, right, you mean how he's against the civil rights movement, marriage equality, women's reproductive rights.

As a bi white male: *FUCK* Ron Paul.

Stop looking at my house!

[atari2600a]

I swear you guys if you keep looking at unauthorized content like my malibu mansion through every satellite-view website like Google(TM) Maps(R) & MapQuest(TM) I fucking swear to god...

Re:Stop looking at my house!

[jones_supa]

Who's the naked person in the garden?

Millions of people will be calling their telco's

[AHuxley]

Consumer: Look, it's a bleeding network, isn't it? I've got a license for me Mac, I've got a license for me wireless connection.
Callcenter: You don't need a license for your internet.
Consumer: I bleedin' well do and I've got a Mac! Can't be caught on the net!
Callcenter: There is no such thing as a bloody internet license.
Consumer: Yes there is.
Callcenter: No there isn't.
Consumer: What's that then?
Scans form
Callcenter: This is a US birth certificate with the layers cut out and 'internet' pasted in, in Euphemia.
Consumer: Man didn't have the long form.
Callcenter: What man?
Consumer: The American man from the Internet detector van.
Callcenter: The flea market van, you mean.
Consumer: Look, it's people like you what cause telco churn.
Callcenter: What internet detector van?
Consumer: The internet detector van from the PFI called "Diplomatic Wireless Service".
Callcenter: Diplomatic Wireless Service?
Consumer: It was printed like that on the van. I'm very observant. I never seen so many bleedin' racks. The man said their equipment could pinpoint a packet at four hundred yards, and my MAC being such a happy Mac was a piece of cake.
Callcenter: How much did you pay for this?

Not all ISPs are blocking it yet.

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

I'm on TalkTalk and TPB still works fine without any jiggery pokery whatsoever.

Re:Not all ISPs are blocking it yet.

[McDrewbs]

Yep, I'm on TalkTalk as well, no block as of yet.

Re:Not all ISPs are blocking it yet.

[Anonymous Coward]

They've got a couple of weeks to comply and TalkTalk are known for being against this kind of censorship anyway so will do the minimum possible as late as possible.

Re:Not all ISPs are blocking it yet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, really? I heard they were fully behind blocking it.
I read that it was only BT who were allowed to mull it over and see what they could do.

This whole thing is just a mess.

I miss btjunkie

[Anonymous Coward]

Pirate bay was all well and good but BT junkie was the best and one I miss the most. Id trade BTjunkie for a dozen pirate bays.

It's Only Hard

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only hard if you're a 'journalist'.

Re:Millions of people will be calling their telco'

[__aaqvdr516]

bahahaha Eric the Half-duplex Bee

Re:Pfft. That's still the easy way.

[jamesh]

These folks claiming to be "unblocking The Pirate Bay the Hard Way" are still doing it the easy way. They want to do it the hard way? Rally a bunch of supporters and go to Parliament and MAKE them unblock it. Rouse friends and family in support of sharing of information (the BASIS OF HUMANITY) and don't let anyone forget who the bastards are that blocked it in the first place and why they should be voted out. Get some money together and run smear campaigns on the media networks if you dare.

"Oh that's too hard", yes well, that's why it's called the HARD way.
"Oh, I'll just use $NEXT_ON_THE_BLOCK_LIST tool or service to get around the censorship", not only are they not doing it The hard way, they're just plain doing it wrong.

Unfortunately the only rallying most of your audience will do will be the kind that doesn't involve them getting out of their seats...

And you need to add the qualifier "in the long term" to your assertion about the "easy way" and the "hard way"... the "hard way" is easy right now and that's why it's called the "easy way".

Hmmm... I think not

[Anonymous Coward]

So this article is supposed to rally the geeks to figure out the next step/s of getting somewhere on the net without proxy .... what... so that the all seeing eyes can figure out what to block next?
Color me skeptic but I think smart people know better than to give out solutions freely so that they can be blocked without much effort later.
But I guess it works because some geeks lack attention they never received when they were young or even some now, so they will gladly give up ways just to get a small spotlight on them for five minutes.

I rate this article 0/10.

Re:Pfft. That's still the easy way.

[kamapuaa]

You arguments aren't going to convince a single person. Most people make a clear distinction between "stealing shit off piratebay" & "the basis of humanity." Talking like a lunatic isn't going to convince anybody who isn't a Slashdot drone repeating the groupthink.

Re:Millions of people will be calling their telco'

[TheGratefulNet]

"there's lumps of it 'round the ACK."

Re:Pfft. That's still the easy way.

[Stormthirst]

While I agree with the sentiments of your post, there is one major problem:

One of the biggest rallies ever done in the UK (total I believe around 2 million people) walked through the streets of London. We still ended up fighting in the Iraq War.
Tony Blair decided that as "only" 2 million rallied, and the other 58 million "stayed home" it was a democratic decision, and that the 58 million were giving him permission to go to war.

Conclusion: Parliament doesn't give a shit about rallies.

A website blocked? In the UK??

[Anonymous Coward]

What amazes me the most while reading this piece of news is not the actual article but rather the simple fact that a website has actually been blocked, in a so-called "free", democratic area of the world??? WTF?

Having worked in China for many years now, I thought that places like the US, Canada or the UK would be still be free from this kind of censorship, and I find it appalling to realize that it is not the case anymore... I know that bills are being passed right now to change this but I wasn't aware that this kind of censorship is already in action.

One of the reasons why I'm going back to Canada this summer is cuz I want my free (as in freedom) internet back. Looks like It'll be the same shit but a bit "less bad". Sigh.

Sad times my friend, sad times.

Re:Pfft. That's still the easy way.

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to crowd source citizen lobby groups. Get organized!

Here in Germany, this video is blocked

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights.
Sorry about that.

*Sigh*

Sneakernet

[Errol backfiring]

By "the hard way" I was assuming a rebirth of sneakernet.

Re:Pfft. That's still the easy way.

[Cederic]

You're right. It needs to descend into rioting to make a difference in the UK.

Sad that's the case really :(

One way...

[Anonymous Coward]

Piratebay could ddos themselves with the help of the world from proxies under those ISP's, it's not against the law to ddos yourself right?, they might change their minds then!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Ideas...

[GameboyRMH]

I see their new proxy setup page on the "hydra bay." I wonder if there's a way to set up a proxy that is served on an .onion/.i2p site and gathers its data through the TOR network as well. So when a user visits the darknet site, the proxy goes back through through the darknet to fetch TPB. It would be slow as hell but also resilient and anonymous as hell.

Re:Pfft. That's still the easy way.

[Hatta]

Conclusion: Democracy is broken.

nyud

[ErixTr]

http://thepiratebay.se.nyud.net:8090/

This works for me.

Re:nyud

[kbx911]

yes this also works

DPI

[mitcheli]

Well, it's only a matter of time before the hashes get loaded into a DPI solution that's sitting at the ISP demarcation points and then yes, they CAN block the text too.

The © Copyright 2012, all rights reserved.

[Anonymous Coward]

OK. That's it. STFU. Stop using my copyrighted work "The" (Copyright 2012, all rights reserved.). No derivative works either you tards.
Where is my lawyer's number? You can't use those 3 letters together for 75 more years. Or if I form a corporation, for eternity. I'll sue all you for gazillions in lost revenue that I could have made through licensing its use.
Tomorrow I think my patent gets approved - Alphabetic letter arrangement based communications. It's awesome. You take the letters in the alphabet, group them in various ways to create objects called words, and then group those word objects in assorted arrangements to make constructs called sentences. I've found several patent troll law firms to help me rake in the astronomical licensing fees.
Gawd bless kapitalism!

Re:Pfft. That's still the easy way.

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate to say it, but for once the despicable twerp was right.
Basing government policy on what a minority of the population wants is a bad idea.
Now, if only he had applied that rule to his own policy decisions...

Parliament is right not to give a shit about rallies. But it should become possible to force referenda.

Server side...

[Anonymous Coward]

Pirate bay could send out emails/rss to proxy/alternate server links that are not blocked or...
on the software side an app that can view the site but instead of you connecting to it to access it "it connects to you" for authentication and viewing, so every hour with the IP/port/security code that you can change that you have synced with them will "ping the software for a response" and your on the site! (especially with the whole site being 90mbs in magnet links...)