Illustration by John Shakespeare [source]
The Australian government has just ordered all local internet service providers to block all access to these websites, with 15 days to comply :
- The Pirate Bay
Torrentz(malware warning)- Torrent Hounds
- ISOHUNT
- Solar Movie
In total 61 domains will be blocked- the list can be viewed in the court order here.
This case will be the first time site-blocking legislation has been successfully used in Australia, so of course it's being used to protect profits for massive media companies.
Who pushed for the site blocks ?
The case was filed by Foxtel and Village Roadshow in Federal court back in February 2016 , and the major respondents are Telstra, Optus, TPG and M2 .
No representatives of any of the affected sites were present in any court proceedings - the defending ISPs never argued against the block being implemented, they only wanted to make sure that implementation wasn't too difficult or expensive for themselves.
How will the block be implemented ?
ABC coverage of the decision gives a few clues as to how it would be implemented
Once the sites are blocked, people who continue to visit the blocked sites will see a warning page informing them the site cannot be accessed.
The "landing page" as it is referred to, will be hosted by either the ISP or the rights holder.
The page will show that access has been disabled by order of the Federal Court because it "infringes or facilitates the infringement of copyright".
This sounds like DNS hijacking - simply redirecting specific domain names to servers under ISP control instead of the rightful owners of the domain.
How do I bypass the block ?
If you're an aussie just make sure you're using not using your ISP's DNS server and in many cases you will have already bypassed the "block".
OpenDNS DNS Servers - 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220
Google DNS Servers - 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4
Even if your ISP uses other attacks on top of DNS hijacking you would only need to use a proxy or VPN connection (riseup rock) and you'll still avoid the "block" completely.
Reactions and conclusion
Personally I think that until the content is made available in a convenient format at a reasonable price at the SAME TIME as international releases , the vast majority of Australians will continue to pirate their media.
This is a big expensive bit of theatre that will not really affect piracy, or drive anyone back to Foxtel .
This comment from shirro in the reddit discussion broke my sarcometer :
This day will go down in history as the day when millions of Australians threw off the shackles of illegal downloads and value for money streaming providers and embraced Foxtel Platinum HD at $137 per month. Truly a genius move by Foxtel that will bring people flocking back to their product.
Here's a quick look at the siteblock hashtag on twitter :
In the end, this decision and media attention is only going to serve to educate people on how to pirate more privately and securely - and teaches them not to trust their local ISP's DNS server.
This was just a massive waste of taxpayer money, court resources and time. Good job guys, you stopped piracy!
