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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."

45 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Block all proxies? by Karganeth · · Score: 5, Funny

    When will they begin to block general proxies, as they can be used to access blocked sites?

    1. Re:Block all proxies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The order, as drafted, seems to compel this particular action, after the BPI inform them. Because they're dedicated reverse proxies and effectively therefore alternate addresses for the same site, the original order would seem to cover this.

      The order probably would not allow the blocking of a more general proxy.

    2. Re:Block all proxies? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Using proxies could just be made into some form of suspicious online activity.
      Under colour of law if caught/traced back you could get some "database" entry about your apparent need for secretive computer network skills.
      You have no direct contact with police, perhaps a digital sneak and peek warrant at your logs, home.
      The real fun would start if you ever needed a criminal background check or background investigation for your work or charity.
      Your company, multinational or friends invite you to 'help' at a public event - all your colleagues turn up clean and have the branded tshirts/name tags for the day out.
      Your name come back with a cryptic "no arrests" but your blocked by a department with the word family or children in its area of responsibility.
      ie the state did not see you needing a police or national security note but wanted to keep your name on file for a long time ;)

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Block all proxies? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't know why this was modded funny because it is the logical conclusion of this process. The BPI and their American counterparts have been pushing for search engines to introduce copyright filters by default for years, blocking all torrent sites outright. Ideally they want a whitelist of approved sites to be returned when searching for anything music related. Rankings would depend on BPI fees paid, to ensure no indie sites get too popular.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. 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.

    --
    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. Re:How futile. by mrclisdue · · Score: 1

      If they're pirating Apple software ... then they would enjoy that.

      (Score:2, Interesting)

      Now THAT is funny.

      cheers,

    3. Re:How futile. by fazey · · Score: 1

      Are you saying apple users take it up the butt? Or is this an Alan Turing -> sionide apple -> apple logo reference?

    4. Re:How futile. by daveime · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      > Doesn't that worry you a little bit?

      No not at all. The Court Order lists sites that can be blocked, and *dedicated* proxies that effectively point to the same place.

      It does NOT give the BPI the power to "shut down any site it wants" and other hyperbolic statements that are being bandied about in the media.

      Using Slippery Slope arguments is a nonsensical thing to do. Are you seriously trying to tell me that if they block some political activists site, he's not going to just register another domain and have the site back up in 5 seconds, and then scream blue-murder all over Twitter and Reddit ?

      Let's stick to the facts. The BPI are playing whack-a-mole, and right now they have a considerably bigger "whacker" than in the past. Is it going to inconvenience some cheap bastards who want fr33 st00f ? Possibly. Is it the "end of the Internet as we know it, police state, 1984, dystopian nightmare etc etc". Fuck off, seriously.

  3. Surprise? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This is a surprise to anyone?

    1. 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.

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
  4. and.. by houbou · · Score: 4, Interesting

    block one, something else opens.. it's quite simple. instead of trying to find a solution for this, they should just deal with the root cause. make things more affordable could perhaps be one solution, eh? :)

    1. Re:and.. by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      consumers are their own worst enemy here. If we want things to get more affordable we need to stop giving them excuses. If something is too expensive then "DON'T BUY IT". by pirating it you only give them an excuse to provide more lockdowns and inflate the price more. If they saw an actual decline in consumption based on their price then maybe they would wake up. Either it is worth the money and you want it bad enough to pay for it or you don't touch the damn stuff with a 40 foot pole, there is no valid middle ground if you want things to change.

    2. Re:and.. by aflag · · Score: 1

      I think the regular pirate doesn't care if things change or not, because he's already getting things his way. Besides, it doesn't look like those producers will be able to end piracy any time soon. So I think the battle is already over. Pirates won.

    3. Re:and.. by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 1

      make things more affordable could perhaps be one solution, eh?

      I'm fairly sure that the Movie & Music industries would sooner make themselves look like idiots, make dopy mistakes, publish books about it, hire trolls to hit forums with anti-piracy posts, bribe governments & police forces, spend hundreds of millions on lobbyists and degrade the quality of their produced content before they even tried that!

      *fairly* sure.

    4. Re:and.. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The world doesn't work like that. If a CD or DVD or book is too expensive you buy a second hand copy or rent it from the library for free. You could also just wait for it to come on the radio or the TV, or just borrow it from a friend.

      I'd love to know how many times the average BitTorrented song or TV episode is used. Most songs are probably 1 play or maybe slightly less, and TV episodes will definitely average less than 1 (download a whole series, get bored half way through...) In other words most of the time it is the equivalent of watching the show on TV and channel surfing during the ad-breaks, which is neither illegal nor morally wrong in most people's eyes.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:and.. by Ash+Vince · · Score: 2

      .. hire trolls to hit forums with anti-piracy posts ...

      Bear in mind that some us are not paid to think the piracy is not a good thing, we actually believe it and post our own honest opinions on the matter. Not everyone who disagrees with you and your chums is a paid troll.

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
  5. Attn: Everyone. We're blocking you from... by SeaFox · · Score: 1, Redundant

    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.

    Unless there's some law saying they have to disclose it why would they? Really, there's no surprise here. If you were running an ISP would you make a big deal of announcing all the sites your customers can't access on your service?

  6. Re:Post them on twitter by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems like this would pretty easy. You can fit magnet links inside a QR code, and there's a million other ways you could encode the link into an image, perhaps even encrypting the link with a simple cipher to stop bots from autoblocking them.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  7. Solution. by AndyJ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Install Opera.
    Turn on turbo browsing mode (Icon bottom left.)

    PirateProxy.net now working again for me on Virgin.

    --
    Never be afraid to ask. Wisdom must be gathered before it can be given.
  8. This isn't news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The ISPs were ordered to block particular sites by the court, and they complied with the law of the land.
    When attempting to access one of the blocked sites, the reason given for the block is clearly stated.
    Although you may not like the BPI or their motives, nobody can argue that TPB's rasion d'être is anything other than contributory copyright infringement on an industrial scale; not with a straight face, at least.

    So I fail to see any controversy here at all. Various sites have sprung up in an attempt to circumvent a UK court order, and the order has been broadened to cover them. ISPs have complied with UK law, as they are required to.

    Yes, let's spin this into an "us versus the man" situation - how, exactly? That pirating the godawful shit the mainstream music and movie industries produces is now microscopically less effortless?

    Please don't associate moans from a bunch of petty criminals with any genuine cause.

    1. Re:This isn't news by stanIyb · · Score: 1

      Since censorship is evil, it's a problem whether or not it's effective.

    2. Re:This isn't news by xenobyte · · Score: 1, Troll

      Although you may not like the BPI or their motives, nobody can argue that TPB's rasion d'être is anything other than contributory copyright infringement on an industrial scale; not with a straight face, at least.

      I'll bite, and do so with a straight face.

      I understand if you're unable to access TPB due to government censorship but then let me enlighten you. The founding reason for TPB was to facilitate unlimited and unrestricted file sharing and to use civil disobedience to fight the misuse of copyright for commercial purposes (like using local monopolies to drive up prices). The argument has always been that a copy costs nothing for nobody and nobody loses anything while everybody have the chance to gain something.

      The copyright MAFIAA has always presented the argument that each copy is a lost sale (one-to-one) but the few times this argument has passed through court rooms it has always been struck down for two primary reasons:

      1) A significant portion of those using the pirated copy cannot afford the genuine article. This is especially true with overpriced software like AutoCAD.

      2) An even more significant portion are unable to buy the genuine version of the pirated article because it's not for sale where they are located. This is especially true for movies and tv-shows.

      As the rights holders control both pricing and distribution, they're directly responsible for a large amount of the piracy, and have the ability to remove most of the foundation for piracy with a stroke of a pen. They create the demand but are unable to fulfill it so people have to resort to piracy.

      --
      "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
    3. Re:This isn't news by Ash+Vince · · Score: 1

      The argument has always been that a copy costs nothing for nobody and nobody loses anything while everybody have the chance to gain something.

      This is only true if you discount the fact that each copy has to contribute something towards the cost of creating the original.

      The original was very expensive to produce so that cost has to be shared out somehow, why not share it out amongst all the people who want to gain access to copy, even temporarily just for their own viewing?

      Unless you think some people should gain access to a copy for free while others should pay? That strikes me as inherently unfair.

      Try to not get stuck up on individual cases (like move, song, computer game), try and come up with an economic model that allows things that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce but almost nothing to make but each subsequent copy can be made for free pay for their production. Make sure you take into account that each product has to be separable as some people work on one product but not others but still need to be paid a share of the revenue of products they help create.

      I am not saying the movie studios, riaa or whatever are great. I think they suck and have screwed up many times, but in order to throw the current system in the bin we need to have a tangible replacement that still works within the confines of a capitalist society where people need to be paid for their efforts.

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
    4. Re:This isn't news by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      This is only true if you discount the fact that each copy has to contribute something towards the cost of creating the original.

      No, it doesn't. The number of copies paid for, or maybe something else altogether, needs to account for the cost of creating something. Back around last millenium, Baen Books established the Baen Free Library to distribute digital copies of books they published, free, and no strings attached, and found that it increased book sales considerably. It's almost certainly better for software vendors if those who don't buy what they publish pirate it rather than use something else. Some bands put their music out for free as a form of advertising, hoping for better sales of T-shirts and the like, or more interest in seeing them live.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    5. Re:This isn't news by Ash+Vince · · Score: 1

      The number of copies paid for, or maybe something else altogether, needs to account for the cost of creating something.

      Why is it fair though if I pay for something but you get it for free?

      Back around last millenium, Baen Books established the Baen Free Library to distribute digital copies of books they published, free, and no strings attached, and found that it increased book sales considerably.

      Probably because nobody had heard of them so doing this as a stunt got them free advertising to attract people to their product. If they were a household name beforehand though this probably would have had the opposite effect and resulted in less revenue.

      Some bands put their music out for free as a form of advertising, hoping for better sales of T-shirts and the like, or more interest in seeing them live.

      Bands make almost nothing from playing live. They make more money from selling merchandise at gigs and record sales. Most of the money from concerts goes to promoters and such.

      Also, when you are young going to gigs is great. As you get older though most people start wanting to enjoy music in the comfort of their own living room or on headphones as they travel to work or wherever. Should those of us who have no interest in going to gigs get our enjoyment for free while you younguns pay for it? I think if you took record sales out of the equation then the cost of going to gigs would have to go up considerably.

      Bands put music out for free in order to advertise to potential customers and get known. Then they hope to be able to sell you more music in future.

      Also, music is not a great example as most people I know play in bands for fun but then have real day jobs to pay the bills. Some things like music this might work for but this is not applicable to other jobs as the pleasure is all in the consumption, not the production.

      Would your music analogy extend to creating computer games or movies?

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
  9. 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.

    1. Re:They should consider themselves lucky. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      As they already are in some cases. Encryption playing a vital role in mitigating certain things already, proxies popping up likes flies be it through main internet or tor links. This is a hydra, chop off one head, 10 grow back.

      Where there is a will there is a way. Companies like this will never win. Best tactic? Make things in forms the consumers want at prices that are considerably reasonable and stop ripping off arists/developers etc. Will it remove it completely? no, there will always be thieves, will it help, of course, By giving the consumer what they want at the point of purchase you remove the reason to pirate it. Or, for the most part....

      BPI can go suck a big one, this is a losing battle, as someone above said its whack a mole and sites pop up faster than they can create and put inplace court orders to block them.

  10. Not ISPs, at least not at ISP level by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hi

    I just attempted to setup a proxy on my dedicated server at a datacentre in France.

    It was blocked instantly

    Tried a few other things, also blocked instantly

    Tried running the webserver on port 800 thinking perhaps transparent webproxying at the ISP level was blocking it

    It wasn't.

    Got someone in japan to try it, it worked, got someone on a different ISP in the UK to try it, blocked.

    There's clearly some sort of packet inspection going on and anything that comes up TPB is blocked in the UK.

    1. Re:Not ISPs, at least not at ISP level by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      Did "a few other things" include different DNS servers? I haven't used file sharing sites for years (Nothing worth the hassle of finding cracks has been released, and Steam Just Works(tm)), but I am so very sorely tempted to start to VPN everything at the router.

      Has anyone created a Chrome / Firefox plugin to make PGP email encryption easy for web clients?

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    2. Re:Not ISPs, at least not at ISP level by rdnetto · · Score: 1

      So presumably, HTTPS would be effective.

      --
      Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
  11. Re:The scary part is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    How long before Mega gets censored? How long before trackers get censored? How long before the Tor website's download links get censored?

    How long before /. is censored?

    The UK should be sunk into the North Sea.

  12. 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.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    1. Re:VPNs by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      VPN providers might have a .com name and could use US/EU credit card clearing infrastructure.
      When provided with an ip, port, time - the request would be crystal clear - user CC/logs details or UK~EU~US "money laundering" "counter-terrorism" clauses start getting spun up.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  13. Re:The scary part is... by Skapare · · Score: 2

    We revolted from British rule. Maybe they can, too.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  14. DO NOT fuck with my seeders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's an open secret that about 75% of english-language TV worth watching, comes from the UK. I don't care how much the UK government works against the interest of its own citizens, but interfering with the cappers' ability to get their video to me, is anti-American. And Americans don't take kindly to other governments having anti-American policies. Fucking with me, is my government's job.

    It's open season on Redcoats. PART 2, BIATCH!

    1. Re:DO NOT fuck with my seeders by crutchy · · Score: 1

      Fucking with me, is my government's job

      +1, american faceplant

    2. Re:DO NOT fuck with my seeders by gravis777 · · Score: 1

      So are you saying we are going to declair open war on the Brits to give us more Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, and Britain's Got Talent? .....

      Actually, I like this idea, where do I sign up!

  15. Nah, boycott won't work by Camael · · Score: 1

    I think that viewpoint is a bit too idealistic and disregards human nature. Humans have never been very good about reaching consensus and acting in concert. Just look at slashdot itself- imagine trying to get all the posters to agree on the same point and to take the same action.

    Just off the top of my head, I can think of several likely responses you will get if you propose a boycott :-
    - It's not too expensive.
    - Developers deserve to be rewarded.
    - I can afford it.
    - I hate the price but I can't live without it
    - Why do I care.

    My point being that your suggestion of a boycott is impractical and is never likely to happen.

    If they saw an actual decline in consumption based on their price then maybe they would wake up.

    Or, they could decide that since there was no demand, they won't make it any more. Eg. "Sales of the last RPG we made bombed, nobody plays RPGs anymore. Lets keep pumping out Madden games instead".

  16. Re:Neanderthals by crutchy · · Score: 1

    it will probably help the next generation wireless p2p (isp-less) internet develop quicker by providing more incentives to abandon the old commercialized censored malware advertising ridden cess pool that is the current interweb, so that's a plus

  17. Use IPv6 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What would happen if proxies were set up on IPv6. Even though none of these 'top' UK ISPs offer native IPv6, customers could still access them using Teredo? I suspect that few, if any, of these ISP have the capability to filter IPv6 sites

  18. there are many UK ISPs not blocking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This block only seems to affect the big ISPs like BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin. Many of the smaller companies aren't part of these schemes and aren't being targetted by the court orders. Just switch your business to one of them!

    1. Re:there are many UK ISPs not blocking by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      A list would be useful. There are a bunch of "other" ISPs and presumably some of them are better on censorship than others.

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
  19. Torrents lead to sales by CadentOrange · · Score: 2

    Last week, I had a gaming itch to scratch and I felt like playing the XCOM reboot. It's available for £34.99 on the App Store and I was hesitant to buy it because I wasn't sure how it would run on my Macbook with an integrated graphics. It's always a hassle trying to get a refund for purchased software so I searched online for a demo to get a feel for how it would play. After some searching, I found that the demo was only available for the Window's version.

    So I downloaded a torrent of the game.

    To my surprise, the game ran well on my Macbook's integrated graphics chip. I spent a couple of hours checking things out, playing through the tutorials and just having fun with the game. I then shut it down, and proceeded to buy the game. screenie

    The developers who made the port did themselves no favours by not releasing a demo. The lack of playable demo coupled with the asinine rules governing purchased software (no returns, wtf?) mean they would definitely have lost a sale. However, thanks to the availability of the cracked version I was able to check that the game ran fine on my machine which then led to a purchase.

    TL;DR
    Torrents help push sales. True story.

  20. Wrong by Safety+Cap · · Score: 1

    If something is too expensive then "DON'T BUY IT". by pirating it you only give them an excuse to provide more lockdowns and inflate the price more.

    Game of Thrones pirated; HBO doesn't mind.

    Also, those media companies are run by Techno-Luddites who couldn't manage their way out of a wet paper sack with a flashlight and a jackhammer, so no wonder they don't understand how to watch shows on teh intertubes without a cable subscription.

    People pirate because it is easier than being legit. If it was easier to pay, many would.

    --
    Yeah, right.