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Singapore ISPs Block 53 Pirate Sites Following MPAA Legal Action (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the taking-a-stand dept.

53 piracy websites, including The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, have been blocked in Singapore following the most sweeping action taken by copyright holders in the country in more than a decade. From a report: A new wave of blocks announced this week are the country's most significant so far, with dozens of 'pirate' sites targeted following a successful application by the MPAA earlier this year. [...] "In Singapore, these sites are responsible for a major portion of copyright infringement of films and television shows," an MPAA spokesman told The Straits Times. "This action by rights ïowners is necessary to protectï the creative industry, enabling creators to create and keep their jobs, protect their works, and ensure the continued provision of high-quality content to audienceïsï."

45 comments

  1. It has begun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All torrent sites will be blocked before long.

    1. Re:It has begun by iamhassi · · Score: 1

      I thought kickasstorrents was already gone, their website does not work anymore, and piratebay alternatives seem like junk ad sites. It's nearly impossible to find a good torrent site anymore even for open source software and videos

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    2. Re:It has begun by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

      Um, thepiratebay + dht is quite resiliant through a vpn. On occasion when tpb gets dds, tbp asia still works. The overall infrastructure is remarkably robust. The only clog in the works is if I vpn through a US address, some torrents get poisoned. Good luck poisoning Armenia lads. Or if so, I only have about 180 other endpoints to use. Pro tip: Hong Kong is criminally immune.

    3. Re:It has begun by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Singapore is a Muslim country governed by Sharia Law, like no parts of Britain.

      FTFY

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      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    4. Re:It has begun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Singapore is a 75% Chinese non muslim country not governed by Sharia Law, unlike of Britain which is .7% Chinese and has an head of state who is also the head of the established Christian church (the Church of England)

  2. How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm using DNSCrypt with OpenNIC. How is an ISP going to block domains? An IP block is ridiculous, especially with CDNs.

    1. Re: How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can't.

    2. Re:How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can still block protocols. There will be no escape from this until we can render the ISP obsolete. Nothing less can possibly work.

  3. "necessary to protect"... a dead man walking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not that content is dead. It's that the MPAA and RIAA have grown complacent and arrogant. Their members aren't delivering what's wanted to the people that want it at a price they want to pay. To them it's all about control and making the customer dance.

    But in reality, the customer is king, always, with intangible culture goods even moreso. What's a singer with no audience? A star actor and a film director whose films nobody wants to see?

    Too bad they're promoting censorship to protect their racket, thereby weakening freedom of expression and even indirectly aiding oppressive regimes. But I suppose it's fitting for "disneyland with the death penalty".

  4. List please? by muphin · · Score: 3, Informative

    list of blocked domains please, or it didnt happen :p for my ummm... testing

    --
    It's not a typo if you understood the meaning!
    1. Re:List please? by cciRRus · · Score: 1

      It definitely happened because I had to do something about it.

      I'm not sure if it will work, but you could try setting your DNS server to a Singapore one, and then surf to thepiratebay.org. You'll get a basic HTML error page.

      Here are DNS servers from the top 3 Singapore ISPs: 203.211.152.66, 202.156.1.68, 165.21.83.88

      --
      w00t
  5. VPN, anyone ? by rojash · · Score: 1

    nothing that a VPN cant access

    1. Re:VPN, anyone ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're making the false assumption that laws can't be passed which would require ISPs to block all connections it can't inspect except for some whitelisted corporate connections. We inch closer to such laws every year. Denying that they could exist isn't helping.

    2. Re:VPN, anyone ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure they can pass that law and Russia has, but as has been demonstrated repeatedly its hard to fully censor all VPN and VPN-like privacy / censorship work arounds. Look at Tor. Look at Telegram. Even have Russia blocked millions of IPs from Amazon and Google Telegram *STILL* worked. And this is even after Google and Amazon banned "fronting".

    3. Re:VPN, anyone ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If 99.9% of the population of a nation-state are stuck, then that is a win for censors. They don't care about the 1% tech literates. They'll sue them personally.

  6. Pretty awesome placement- 1...2....3? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1. Singapore ISPs Block 53 Pirate Sites Following MPAA Legal Action
    2. Comcast Confirms Plan To Buy 21st Century Fox and Control of Hulu

    Industry grip tightens around distribution.
    Industry grip tightens around creation.

    And watch as the knock out blow of copyright extension slide in unnoticed- attached to some bill titled "Restoring The Public Domain" or some shit.

    Between some Trump story, AI scare, or some juicy royalty gossip, nobody will even notice. Hoist the black flag.

  7. "Welcome to Singapore!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Singapore being slow at fighting pirates ah?...

  8. So by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 2

    Has Singapore stopped the sale of pirate software at Sim Lim Square? Of well......there's always BCS and Mega Mall in Batam!

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    1. Re:So by cciRRus · · Score: 1

      Yes, pirated CDs and DVDs were rampant in Sim Lim Square, back in the 90s. But they had been all wiped out. Now, we can find android boxes pirating TV content.

      --
      w00t
  9. Minor detail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "This action by rich companies is necessary to protect their profits", fixed that for you

  10. Easy solution for non-technical friends to stop it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hahahah. That won't work. Link below is to a mini VPN wireless router product that ships pre-configured with privacy friendly censorship resistant VPN service provider so your non-technical friends can skip the censorship without understanding anything about how to configure a VPN. All you have to do to setup VPN is connect a cable from the router's WAN port to a LAN port on your primary router/modem and select the VPN access point (pretty pictures included):

    https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/free-software-wireless-n-mini-vpn-router-tpe-r1100

  11. ensure the continued provision of high-quality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lawyering. what utter horseshit.

  12. Why Protect by rtb61 · · Score: 1

    The internet provides such a sheer volume of content, why provide that artificial protection, at taxpayer expense. What purpose does it serve any more, what is the energy and resource wasted by the content creation industry. Should all of it be protected or only some, like text books and documentaries. Why should be protect porn, why should we protect comics, why should we protect drunken drugged up minstrels selling depravity, how does that serve and protect society, what worthwhile service does it provide. Should it be allowed any tax payer dollars at all, show we have to protect it, all it seems to do is attack core normative values, corrupt democracy and parasite upon the society that foolishly feeds it.

    If it has no worth to society and that worth should be tested and proven why should society pay to protect it and the decidedly amoral people that produce it. What benefit are their excesses of consumption to human society.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    1. Re:Why Protect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're so close to making the final philosophical leap.
      Why provide artificial protection at taxpayers expense of ANY private property (distinct from personal property such as your house and car).
      All that energy and resources wasted on protecting the capitalist class from basically all of us.
      Capitalism corrupts democracy, and is a parasite upon the society that foolishly feeds it.

    2. Re:Why Protect by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      The internet provides such a sheer volume of content, why provide that artificial protection, at taxpayer expense. What purpose does it serve any more, what is the energy and resource wasted by the content creation industry. Should all of it be protected or only some, like text books and documentaries. Why should be protect porn, why should we protect comics, why should we protect drunken drugged up minstrels selling depravity, how does that serve and protect society, what worthwhile service does it provide. Should it be allowed any tax payer dollars at all, show we have to protect it, all it seems to do is attack core normative values, corrupt democracy and parasite upon the society that foolishly feeds it.

      Easy. All content in Singapore goes through the censor board. And that's all content - music, movies, books, etc.

      So blocking these sites means basically citizens can't get access to the uncensored content. It ends up being a win-win - the government retains their control over content (must be squeaky-clean) and the content industry gets to have a country block pirate sites.

      Sim Lim Square and other places? They already generally sell pre-censored content, so it's OK for piracy. But letting people see the full versions of movies? Well that cannot do.

      And enforcement will be via the great firewall. No, not the one in China, but Singapore. Everyone seems to believe the Chinese one is a great evil thing, but most of the countries actually have their own versions of the same. It's just the Chinese one gets the most talk, while the others are quietly blocking all the stuff anyways.

      And for the most part, the citizens don't care about things like this - the country is very clean, everything runs on time, etc., so the government must be doing things right. It's scary in its efficiency.

    3. Re:Why Protect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Arguably, democracy corrupts itself.

  13. How are they blocked? by houghi · · Score: 1

    Is it done on DNS level? If so, just change your DNS server to 1.1.1.1 and you are good.
    Why is there no DNS server readily available that only listens to localhost and without the ability to configure anything, includiing domain names. All DNS server software does way too much for most people who want tp avaid using third part DNS.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:How are they blocked? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I don't think there are any blocking systems in use currently that work on the DNS level.

    2. Re:How are they blocked? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When courts demand that ISPs block a particular domain, the ISPs tend to comply by blocking lookups for that domain on their DNS servers. It's the most direct and prudent way of complying with the order. There are other ways that can be more effective at preventing users from accessing servers, but those can be complicated, prone to collateral damage (for example, blocking shared hosting) and/or increase liability on the ISP when someone finds a way to work around them.

    3. Re:How are they blocked? by cciRRus · · Score: 1

      Yes. But I prefer to add the blocked hostnames to my local host file, to bypass the web-surfing restrictions implemented by IMDA.

      By the way, porn sites like PornHub, can also be unblocked the same way. :)

      --
      w00t
    4. Re:How are they blocked? by houghi · · Score: 2

      I know that is how it is done in Belgium by court order. As explained here

      This is still the case. If I use my providers DNS, I do get a message about the block. If I use 1.1.1.1 or my own DNS server, I do not get it. You can also try out one of the following https://www.lifewire.com/free-...

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    5. Re:How are they blocked? by houghi · · Score: 1

      Use one of the following servers and no need to use the hosts file.
      https://www.lifewire.com/free-...

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    6. Re:How are they blocked? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Hmm must be rare. There's petty few cases where ISPs allow these to be bypassed by a DNS. Just a few hundred km north and I'm the proud owner of a VPN here for that very reason. Likewise in the UK, Germany, France, and Australia (to say nothing of China) where I've experienced various blocks that don't succumb to simply changing the DNS... Speaking of who uses their ISP's DNS server anyway. That's madness!

  14. Trivial by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

    I won't name the product because neckbeards annoy me, but I've been alternating between Argentina and Armenia for several months.

  15. Re:HILLARY by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Jail prison? That's pretty bad.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  16. Why, though? by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

    What do they have to lose if they don't block the site? They stop sending any legit videos their way and forces them to pirate everything?

  17. I like going to the arcade. ... by Miser · · Score: 1

    Because the game of whack-a-mole continues!