Chrome and Firefox Block Pirate Bay Over 'Harmful Programs' (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader shares a TorrentFreak report: Chrome and Firefox are actively blocking direct access to the The Pirate Bay's download pages. According to Google's Safe Browsing diagnostics service TPB contains "harmful programs," most likely triggered by malicious advertisements running on the site. Comodo DNS also showed a "hacking" warning but this disappeared after a few hours.

Comments

Better just block the whole internet

[elrous0]

Only way to be sure.

But not Forbes?

[Ol Olsoc]

A site that demands you allow them to install malware, and has proven already to have done so.

I already block them for that reason.

It just gives you a warning

[ArtemaOne]

It isn't a block, it is a warning. Works just fine.

Re:It just gives you a warning

[ravenshrike]

Hey, expecting the average pebkac to click a button saying they acknowledge the high probability that the website in question will infest their computer is entirely too difficult. As for TPB, it has been worse than normal recently, enough that I immediately run MWB and S&D after visiting.

what we need here is a mentality reset

[Anonymous Coward]

It is true there are advertisements that have malicious effects, if you load them and/or run their javascript (which is idiotic to go running). It is also true that malicious native OS executables can be found on sites like TPB. Even moreover, it's almost certainly true that I could work around whatever "block" they have put in place.

However, let's hold the bus just a sec. Harmful things exist, but I do NOT want Google / Mozilla / the US Govt / China / the EU / my homeowner's association / insurance company / whoever making my choices for me about what I should see, run, what sites I can visit, and what information is harvested for who to sell to who.

What we need here is a reset back to the 1980's. I had a computer on my desk - well, probably under, at the time. It did whatever the fuck I told it to. It answered to me. It could access the (then pre-web internet), and there was nobody trying to tell me what was "acceptable". Not that it was bug free, but it generally was written to accept my commands. The FT-fucking-P program was not written to check back with the homeship whether the site was "safe". More and more we see big companies and bigger governments all wanting to tell me what I should be doing, reading, saying, and running. For my own protection. For the children. For the RIAA.

Control freaks: do please fuck off. Yes, I know, using Chrome and Firefox is optional. I know the internet is not safe, particularly if you are uneducated. But this big brother shit is becoming neigh well unavoidable unless you want to live in a fucking cave.

Re:what we need here is a mentality reset

[ewanm89]

Google's safe browsing list have been in both Firefox and chrome since chrome's first release, and both Firefox and chrome have a toggle to turn it off in the options should you wish. For some reason Google has added pirate bay download pages to the list, according to database lookup it matches the sort of block they usually impose when the site has been compromised either directly or via maleware embedded in advertising.

Not too far from the truth, honestly.

[SvnLyrBrto]

I'm not sure about torrent freaks, but TPB and KAT would spawn no end of pop ups and new tabs suggesting you click on their links for free "security scans" and "disk repair tools" of dubious provenance. And Adblock seemed powerless to stop it. No way would I ever take them up on their "generous offers", but I'd bet that many a less savvy or careful user got themselves pwned that way.

Re:Not too far from the truth, honestly.

[AmiMoJo]

Never had that issue with KAT and uBlock. TPB doesn't give me pop-ups but the many "mirrors" do. Make sure you are on the genuine site: https://thepiratebay.org/

Re:Malware in torrents

[Dutch Gun]

I can assure you, as a professional game programmer, that I've never even heard of such a practice. That's not to say it hasn't ever been done or tried, but I certainly haven't heard of such an instance, at least from inside the industry. I'm pretty sure that videogame companies don't want people to associate their games with malware either, even if they're not getting a sale. I also don't believe that it's the groups who crack programs' DRM that do this. Like you said, they've also got a reputation that would be damaged.

As an author myself, I'll be releasing my game DRM-free (well, the PC versions at least, but other platforms are out of my control) and cryptographically signed. Even when it's pirated (which is pretty much inevitable), people will know it's not been tampered with and is safe to play. I'd prefer them to have fun with the game, and maybe in the future they'll become a paying customer.