UK ISPs Secretly Start Blocking Torrent Site Proxies

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."

Comments

Block all proxies?

[Karganeth]

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

Re:Block all proxies?

[AmiMoJo]

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.

How futile.

[centipedes.in.my.vag]

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.

Re:How futile.

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

and..

[houbou]

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? :)

Re:and..

[bloodhawk]

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.

Re:Post them on twitter

[CastrTroy]

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.

Solution.

[AndyJ]

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

PirateProxy.net now working again for me on Virgin.

They should consider themselves lucky.

[gallondr00nk]

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.

Not ISPs, at least not at ISP level

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

VPNs

[Skapare]

“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.

DO NOT fuck with my seeders

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Re:Surprise?

[Ash Vince]

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.