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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.

15 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Always browse torrent sites with Javascript off... by ZorinLynx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They can be pretty nasty. Since it's illegal, they don't mind using illegal means to try to make money, such as compromising your computer and installing malware.

    Be careful, folks. :)

  2. 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      And that's the real problem that the media monopolies refuse to acknowledge. I will gladly pay for content. Seriously, I want to give you my money. But, in return, I want to download it to my computer's hard drive with no DRM. Otherwise, fuck you. I'll get it from unlegal sources.

    2. Re:Blame DRM by sir1963nz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      worse here. To watch GoT you need sky basic NZ$50 + HBO NZ$10 a month. Thats NZ$120. BUT.... you MUST have a 12 month subscription so that comes to NZ$720 NO, I don't want sky. If this were me buying Milk I would find that Milk costs $5, but you must buy $60 worth of other groceries you don't want first, and you must buy those groceries every week for a year. Only then can you get the milk. Now I do pay NZ$12 a month for Netflix, unlimited viewing of large volume of content where I choose to watch what I want when I want on what device I choose, where ever I want, AND 2 other people in my house can do the same. So I am NOT going to pay more than that for content I am forced to watch when THEY want me to only on ONE device and then have to suffer adverts too. Can I subscribe to HBO, no. Stop setting up anti-competitive systems

    3. Re:Blame DRM by CRC'99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      And that's the real problem that the media monopolies refuse to acknowledge. I will gladly pay for content. Seriously, I want to give you my money. But, in return, I want to download it to my computer's hard drive with no DRM. Otherwise, fuck you. I'll get it from unlegal sources.

      Here in Australia, the only way you can watch it is to subscribe to FoxTel (one of the few choices for PayTV). It doesn't put things like Game of Thrones on their basic packages - so it can cost you up to $80/mo to see a season of GoT.

      So, we download it from a service that is another letter on top of that time syncing protocol, and all is well.

      Then delete it and buy the HD version from Google Play when it becomes available.

      --
      Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
    4. Re:Blame DRM by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why the fuck would anyone willingly do that? Your social security sucks, your healthcare sucks, your retirement plans suck and the working conditions do, too.

      Seriously, how fucked up must the conditions in your country be that you want to go to the US?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. 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
  4. Re:Always browse torrent sites with Javascript off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You make it sound like non-torrent sites aren't nasty.

  5. Re:Always browse torrent sites with Javascript off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Currently, users accessing The Pirate Bay through Chrome will see the error "Deceptive site ahead," the ones accessing the portal through Firefox will see "Reported Web Forgery!," and Safari users will see "Suspected Phishing Site" in their browsers.

    -->> Users are allowed to skip these errors and continue at their own expense. Screenshots are embedded below for reference.

    (emphasis mine)

    So people aren't actually being blocked, they're just being given a warning which they can ignore.

    Good work Slashdot. Another shitty article with a title that's flat out wrong.

  6. Re:Lies by Mistakill · · Score: 4, Informative

    Works fine here... *puzzled look*

  7. Don't want HBO? Buy discs. by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. 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
  8. Re:Always browse torrent sites with Javascript off by Revek · · Score: 5, Informative

    They send tons of emails to us. We contact them to pay to be their process server and they hang up the phone. Piracy is when someone makes copies and sells them. So far no bottom dwelling copyright spammer has agreed to pay for us to deliver their letter. We have never received a single subpoena. They think we have to do it for free here in the land of the fee. Even if one finally did buck up and pay for us to deliver them they would still be handled as a civil suit. Feel free to shill away how wrong I am but I have real world knowledge about how cheap these bottom feeders are.

  9. Not if HBO wont let us subscribe by GNious · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    Erhm, I think ca 93% of the world cannot subscribe to HBO, due to HBO not making themselves available.

  10. Two steps by allo · · Score: 4, Informative

    1) Disable Google Phishing protection. Because it sends urls to google and because it updates the blocklist using a tracking cookie (google wrkey)
    2) Install Adblock and Noscript

    Then enjoy TPB