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UK ISPs Secretly Start Blocking Torrent Site Proxies

Posted by Soulskill on from the slowly-winning-the-war dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Several UK Internet providers have quietly added a list of new sites to their secretive anti-piracy blocklists. Following in the footsteps of Sky, the first ISP to initiate a proxy blockade, Virgin, BT and several other providers now restrict access to several torrent site proxies. The surprise isn't really that proxies have been added to the blocklist, but that the music industry and ISPs are failing to disclose which sites are being banned."

5 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. How futile. by centipedes.in.my.vag · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a site is blocked, it adapt. Like TPB, it will move, change, and persist. You can't eliminate torrenting by attacking the practice - so long as there's a drive to do it, it'll find a way.

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    Only on /. can I lose karma with 2x "5, Funny" posts.
    1. Re:How futile. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This isn't torrent sites, it's services that allow you to circumnavigate ISPs that are already blocking access to torrent trackers.

      The big issue here is that there is a secret list of what's blocked, which could be far more than copyright infringement. Doesn't that worry you a little bit? Can't you see where all this monitoring and secret blocking is leading, and that there is no public overview on those who control it all?

  2. They should consider themselves lucky. by gallondr00nk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At the minute, they're locked into a futile game of whack-a-mole. It makes me laugh sometimes; the BPI have more or less veto power over the major ISPs in the UK and all they can do is flail around blocking a few sites and proxies. I imagine some bitter, humourless executive in the bowels of the BPI shaking his fist and screaming "CURSE YOU INTERNET!"

    I say they're lucky, as I suspect in five years time they won't even be able to play whack-a-mole. What with censorship by various states, the NSA revelations and increasing authoritarianism, I think the next "generation" of P2P, web and messenger services are going to be anonymous. Tor we all know about, and I notice I2P shows a lot of promise. File sharing will likely be the first breakthrough anonymous application, but I2P supports far more than that and other services will quickly follow.

    I think encrypted, anonymous services will essentially be game over for censorship.

  3. VPNs by Skapare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    “The court orders obtained in relation to The Pirate Bay cover not only the site itself, but also sites which have the sole or predominant purpose of providing access to The Pirate Bay. It would not be right to allow proxy sites flagrantly to circumvent blocks ordered by the High Court. We do not publish the names of proxies and it would not be appropriate for us to do so,” a BPI spokesperson said.

    Well, if they expect VPN providers to block the pirate sites, they will have to provide them with a list. If they fail to provide them with a list, then it is crystal clear that they have no intention to have them block pirate sites.

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    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  4. Re:Surprise? by Ash+Vince · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a surprise to anyone?

    No. The UK has been a police state for years. I can't believe anyone would want to live there or visit the damn country.

    Yup, The US approach of not blocking the sites or proxies but then allowing shyster lawyers to sue the users to bankruptcy is much better.

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    I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.