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The Pirate Bay Now Blocked In Chrome, Firefox, And Safari (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the malvertising-suspected dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari are actively blocking direct access to The Pirate Bay. Kickass Torrents suffered such a similar incident last month, because of the intermediary confirmation screen that appeared every time users navigated away from the site.

The reason why these three browsers block access to The Pirate Bay is unknown, but it could be related to a malvertising campaign that has plagued the site for more than two weeks. Two weeks ago, the malvertising campaign intensified right when season six of Game of Thrones premiered.
Meanwhile, HBO is contacting sites asking them to remove Game of Thrones torrents, and sending thousands of copyright infringement warnings to ISPs, urging them to remind pirates that they can stream HBO content legally after purchasing a subscription to HBO.

7 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Blame DRM by barlevg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I subscribe to HBO. I own a TiVo. But HBO forces TiVo to prevent copying of HBO content off the TiVo and onto, say, a mobile device (note that this is not a problem with most TiVo content). Thus, if I want to watch an HBO show on the subway, I have no choice but to download it illegally.

    1. Re:Blame DRM by fustakrakich · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Why am I paying for these services if I can't use them?

      You're paying for the content. Download it as you see fit.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  2. Seems to be an SSL issue? by Cow+Jones · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It's true that I can't connect to https://thepiratebay.se/ in Firefox, but the error message doesn't really indicate anything that would make me look for a conspiracy:

    Secure Connection Failed

    An error occurred during a connection to thepiratebay.se. SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length. Error code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG

    The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
    Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

    I see these warnings from time to time... maybe they just messed up their SSL config.

    --

    Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
  3. no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't want to subscribe to HBO. I want to subscribe the Game of Thrones. Not the rest of your crap.

  4. Linux Mint 18 will ship without multimedia _codecs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    "Linux Mint 18 will no longer provide separate, codec-free installation media for OEM and magazine distribution. Instead, the distribution will ship without multimedia support while making it easy for users to acquire media codecs during the initial installation of the operating system. "OEM installation disks and NoCodec images will no longer be released. Instead, similar to other distributions, images will ship without codecs and will support both traditional and OEM installations. This will reduce our release cycle to 4 separate events and the production and testing of 12 ISO images. Multimedia codecs can be installed easily: From the welcome screen, by clicking on "Multimedia Codecs", or from the main menu, by clicking on "Menu"->"Sound and Video"->"Install Multimedia Codecs", or during the installation process, by clicking a checkbox option." Additional information on the upcoming release of Linux Mint 18 can be found in the project's monthly newsletter.[1]"

    # distrowatch[dot com]/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=401

    [1] blog.linuxmint[dot com]/?p=3026

    It looks like the free ride is over for most people. Thankfully I won't be one of the unlucky ones who has to download non-free codecs via clearnet. I mean shit, the codecs included in the ISO releases were one of, if not THE distro's go-to reasons. It was all right there on the LiveCD.

    This huge change comes after the alleged compromise of their server(s). I wonder if there's more to the story, were they talked into codec removal? Bought into it?

    Shit, I even read The Tor Project was allegedly provided funding/donation to include the Disconnect.me search engine, and you can check their hosting location(s) and privacy policies!

    Now that there won't be any codecs baked into their ISOs, there is no pressing reason for me to continue downloading their ISOs. Sure, I could always download the codecs later and probably via Tor, but I could do the same with other distros.

    Thank you Linux Mint, but bye bye.

    Bye bye.

  5. That's another reason to switch to Brave browser by SensitiveMale · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I don't go the TPB, but if a product is actively blocking me from going where I want, the it's time to switch products.

    The Brave browser is looking better every day.

  6. Re:Don't want HBO? Buy discs. by thewolfkin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't want to subscribe to HBO. I want to subscribe the Game of Thrones.

    You can do that by buying each season's DVD or BD set as it comes out.

    But The Oatmeal taught me that having to wait for disc releases is an unreasonable burden and it's unfair to ask that of someone.

    --
    Just another second banana