Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Australian Court Orders ISPs To Block 181 'Pirate' Domains, Including Subtitle Sites (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the largest-of-its-kind dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: This week the Federal Court has issued the largest pirate site blocking injunction thus far in Australia, judging by the number of targeted sites. The case in question was filed by Village Roadshow, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, Warner, and others, targeting 78 pirate "locations." The list of targets includes IPTorrents, BT-Scene, Fmovies, Putlocker, RuTracker, KissAnime, NYAA, Torrentday, YIFY-movies and various others. In total, the injunction lists 181 domain names. Interestingly, the court order also targets several subtitle sites. The injunction lists OpenSubtitles, YifySubtitles, and SubScene, for example. While these sites don't host or link to infringing videos, the movie companies argued that the sites are "communicating to the public a literary work," referencing the screenplay.

The list of ISPs that are required to implement the blockades includes Telstra, Optus, Vocus, TPG, Vodafone, and several subsidiaries. The blocking measures have to be implemented within 15 days, through DNS blocking, IP-address blocking, or any other means agreed with the rightsholder. This order will remain valid for a period of three years. If required, the rightsholders can then apply for an extension. The movie companies must also pay ISPs to implement the blocking measures but, at the rate of $50 per domain name, that's not going to be a problem.

3 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. "Block" by niftydude · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Block" in this case is implemented by Oz ISPs via DNS blocking. Those using dnscrypt or any other form of secure DNS lookup which avoids the ISP DNS poisoning do not even notice these court orders.

    There are many good reasons to use alternative DNS servers than that which the ISP provides, among them privacy, and avoiding ISP ad domain hijacking/redirection.

    --
    You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
    1. Re:"Block" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Several ISP's are MITM'ing your data regardless if whether you use their DNS. The only thing that works against that is strong VPN. Anyone who blindly uses their ISP's DNS isn't even fruit that requires picking, it's in the salad already.

      If you're trying to evade the ISP detecting your d/l of torrents or similar using DNS alone, you're on a list somewhere. You may get a letter someday. The stakes are imperceptibly low until they're suddenly very, very serious.

    2. Re: "Block" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Some vpns come with built in DNSes. Look for things like ad blockers or in the case of Nordvpn, "CyberSec" which runs all DNS requests through the servers in the country you connect to, not originate from. If the vpns don't have that feature, DNS can happen outside the vpn and be problematic....