Australian Court Orders ISPs To Block 181 'Pirate' Domains, Including Subtitle Sites (torrentfreak.com) 95
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.
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.
"Block" (Score:5, Interesting)
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" (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.
Re:"Block" (Score:4, Informative)
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" (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....
Re: "Block" (Score:2, Informative)
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.
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Have you even been to Australia? TPG and Telstra both implement this using a simple DNS block. I have live Telstra and TPG connections at the moment, and they don't black-hole the IP addresses or anything. Changing DNS allows access to all blocked sites.
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Several ISP's are MITM'ing your data
How is that even legal with HTTPS traffic, for example?
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They do somehow. The main emule forum is unavailable on my DSL connection (says they can't detect my IP, whatever the hell that means) along with ShareTheFiles which I use to find TV shows. Yes, I'm that dirty a pirate.
Both of them are, however, fully accessible through my phone's data plan, which leads me to conclude my DSL ISP is doing something naughtier than I am.
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Just because it's (mostly) encrypted, doesn't mean it's not commonplace for a service provider to sit in the middle and do the ethical.
For HTTPS requested server name indication is still in plaintext at the start of the flow thus it's trivial to block HTTPS requests to wehaveawarranttoblockthissite.com
Plus many don't type the https:/// [https] themselves so in that case a bad actor can possibly capture a visitors authentication/session cookies (if browser is dumb or cookies were set wrong).
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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.
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Several ISP's are MITM'ing your data regardless if whether you use their DNS.
I wasn't aware of any ISPs in Australia currently doing MiTM attacks. Could you name them? I think at this point it's just the ISPs DNS server.
I have a local resolver on my network, which forwards all DNS lookups to dnscrypt, that in turn performs said lookups over the VPN tunnel. See Unbound DNS forwarder with dnscrypt [alpinelinux.org]
I go one step further and forward all traffic over the VPN based on the source addresss subnet and VLAN tag, ie all traffic from 192.168.2.0/24 with VLAN ID 2 goes directly out to the ISP.
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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.
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The stakes are imperceptibly low until they're suddenly very, very serious.
In America maybe, but since we're talking about Australia it's worth noting that the last attempt at raising the stakes from the movie industry resulted in legal battle between rights holders and the courts culminating in not a single defendant even being notified that they are on the list before the case was dropped.
That said a new battle is current underway from Village Roadshow, and they are trying to get through the courts by applying effectively a speeding fine kind of sum in the hopes that the courts
Re:"Block" (Score:4, Insightful)
apt install bind9
done.
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Re: "Block" (Score:4, Funny)
Re: "Block" (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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It is rare for someone to be *that* ignorant about DNS.
You dropped out of the womb in the middle of a LAN party didn't you.
Re: "Block" (Score:2)
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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.
Re: The future of the internet is encrypted (Score:1)
Not really a risk in Australia. Past cases have determined that the recoverable amount if you pirate a movie is the retail cost of the movie. Not worth taking to court, hence the blocking compromise.
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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.
Re: Proxy site (Score:2)
some of them should change their dns to point to ips to owned by microsoft and google for extra fun
ISPs (Score:1)
How/when are we going to get around them to make this a non-issue?
Alternate Headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Next Week: Australia joins China in banning the use of VPNs that give Citizens access to prohibited resources outside the country.
Encrypted P2P Overlay Networks (Score:1)
Well if you dumb fucks were using any of, for example... ... you know, the Encrypted P2P Distributed Anonymous Overlay Networks,
I2P
Tor+Onioncat
IPFS
CJDNS
GNUNet
etc
then you would be able to Index, Track, and Share ALL YOUR SHIT
fully internally over those networks with COMPLETE IMPUNITY
24x365 forever!!!
They're fast enough to queue up and deliver more than you can
EVER Watch, Listen to, or Play in real time in your life.
And they're completely anonymous and secure.
But you're too STUPID to actually download and con
Unless they can prove they own the copyrights (Score:2)
for every individual file on their sites, the ISPs should also be extra diligent and block:
Village Roadshow, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, Warner, and others
I guess some AUS citizens could chip in the $50 to pay for the blocks.
at the rate of $50 per domain name... (Score:2)
->at the rate of $50 per domain name, that's not going to be a problem.
Thats a lot more than it costs to create an alternate domain name, if each of those sites creates 10000 alternate domain names, they might run into some problems paying the bill.
Re: at the rate of $50 per domain name... (Score:2)
also.
ipv6 for the win!
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Public Service Annoucement: (Score:5, Informative)
And for all of you people that want to see what the fuss is all about, the site list is below.
Infolink [torrentfreak.com]
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.
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Oh, good - they didn't include th-
... but, why spoil that, eh?
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> Why the hell (are) anime sites blocked?
Because they are fucking morons who don't understand the concept of free advertising. Subs are providing value and potential sales.
Bunch of dumb asses.
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where's piratebay, or is it like Pirates of the Caribbean and the piratebay sites are just ghosts.
So does my vpn keep me safe from snooping authorities ?
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I use some of those for subtitles. My wife and I watched Game of Thrones recently, with Chinese subtitles for her. The subtitles were a fan effort and seemed to be really. For example they put character's names on screen when they first appeared in that episode, which is something I could have done with in English at times.
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Total pricks, very frustrating. (Score:2)
I happen to use open subtitles constantly, that site doesn't necessarily mean piracy. Probably, but not definitely. People do legally rip both movies and tv. Plus there's legally purchased foreign content with bad translations.
Well now I need to research how to VPN /properly/ on my network. Unfortunately, I have about 20 machines and I don't want default traffic through the VPN to boot. So that really sucks.
Congratulations, you're pushing people to encrypt entirely
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More proof that they don't understand the Internet (Score:3)
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.
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Maybe 10 years ago, you'd be right.
You mythical "average user" is a bit less helpless now.
Sure, the people old enough to remember a time before widespread personal computer use would be blocked.
But pretty much anyone under 40 wouldn't even blink twice.
Beyond Stupid (Score:1)
DNS servers (Score:1)
It so pointless to waste money doing this. Can't the government spend it better ?