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

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.

Comments

"Block"

[niftydude]

"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.

Re:"Block"

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:"Block"

[nyet]

apt install bind9

done.

Re:"Block"

[niftydude]

I gave the reasons I don't use ISP DNS, none of which have anything to do with piracy.

I merely commented that if you do avoid ISP DNS, you won't notice the block. This is a bit of a problem because if you go do any of those sites for legitimate reasons (searching for fast downloads of creative commons works for example), then you'll be breaking Oz law. It seems a bit unfair, especially given it's pretty unreasonable to expect people to keep track of the thousands of web sites the MPAA and RIAA types have lobbied to have banned in Oz.

Re: "Block"

[slazzy]

I run my own dns server with all 255 million sites correctly updated. Can't say I'm much fun at parties though...

Re: "Block"

[Anonymous Coward]

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....

Re:"Block"

[rtb61]

Who is kidding whom, the biggest problem is there is hardly any content worth pirating that most people have not already pirated. You know what will happen, they will start using this to block independent media of any sort to shut down all competition, everyone knows exactly where this is going and you can get political sites will be targeted.

Re: "Block"

[Rockoon]

I run my own dns server with all 255 million sites correctly updated.

Its rare for someone to not only avoid IPv6, but also avoid IPv4, sticking instead to some early 28-bit IP protocol...but here you are.

Re:"Block"

[Anonymous Coward]

The system is fully documented here:

• Linux Router with VPN on a Raspberry Pi
• Linux Router with VPN on a Raspberry Pi (IPv6)

I'm using the IPv6 implementation. That uses the Global Linked Address for VLAN2 and a ULA (Unique Linked Address) for VLAN3. That way I get IPv6 connectivity everywhere, the latter also requires the VPN provider to issue with an IPv6 address, which mine does.

Re: "Block"

[Anonymous Coward]

It really is just a DNS block. I'm in Australia and my ISP is TPG - using their DNS I cannot get to say 1337x.to but changing DNS to 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 works fine.

Re:The future of the internet is encrypted

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd still need to escape your ISP as a traffic/encryption endpoint, unless you enjoy the socializing aspect of early morning uniformed knocks at the door.

Alternate Headline

[atrex]

Australia Pushes Citizens to Use VPN Services.

Next Week: Australia joins China in banning the use of VPNs that give Citizens access to prohibited resources outside the country.

Re:Proxy site

[Anonymous Coward]

For extra fun, call the proxy sites
IPTorrents-au001.com
IPTorrents-au002.com
IPTorrents-au003.com ...

When they go ahead and block IPTorrents-au*.com, you go ahead and register IPTorrents-au123.com and put pictures of kittens on it. Then you ask Australia's Federal Court why the hell they ordered ISPs to block your website with pictures of kittens.

Public Service Annoucement:

[grep -v '.*' *]

For all of you people that was to stay far, far away from these evil sites, the site list is below.

And for all of you people that want to see what the fuss is all about, the site list is below.

Infolink

2ddl; 8maple.ru; 9anime.is; Addic7ed; Anilinkz; Animefreak; Animeshow; Avxhm; azmaple.com; Bilutv; Bt-scene; Cartooncrazy; Cmovieshd; Ddlvalley; DailyTVFix; Dnvod; dramacity.io; dramahk.me; Fmovies.io; Glodls; Gogoanime; Hdpopcorns; hindilinks4u.to; hkfree.co; icdrama.se; icdramase; ilovehks.com; IPTorrents; Kantv; Kimcartoon; Kissanime; kisscartoon.ac; m4ufree.com; Masterani.me; Myanimeseries; Nyaa; Nzbplanet; Ondarewatch; Openloadmovies; Opensubtitles.org; Otakustream; Phimbathu; Putlocker.ac; Putlockerhd.co; qooxi.net; Rmz; Rutracker.org; Scnsrc; Seasonvar; Seriesfree; Solarmoviez; Soul-anime; streamtvb.com; Subscene; Subsmovies; Torrentday; Torrentfunk; Torrentmovies; Tvbox; Tw116; Two-movies; Ultra-vid; Usabit; VexMovies; viewasian.tv; Vkool; Vmovee; Watchanimeonline.me; Watchcartoononline.com; Watchcartoononline.io; Watchonlinemovies; Watchseries-online; woaikanxi.cc; Yify-movies; Yifysubtitles; Ymovies.tv; Zimuzu; Zooqle.

Re:at the rate of $50 per domain name...

[gravewax]

or those sites could enter a profit sharing scheme with the ISP's :-) create 10000 alternate names go 50 50 on the blocking fee. win win and it still wouldn't affect actual users anyway.

More proof that they don't understand the Internet

[Chas]

If it's on the net, the ISPs can "block" all they want.
Unless they're gonna block the entirety of the Internet, and every VPN provider in existence, it's STILL going to be available.