Windows 7: New Anti-Piracy Weapon Revealed

On of the UK's biggest ISPs, BT, has been ordered to block users from accessing piracy links................

BBC News - BT ordered to block pirate links

Legal back-and-forth games will continue as only one ISP has been targetted, LulzSec/Antisec will strike again, more people will come to know about usenet ... yay for the copytrolls .. whatever!

Agh... can't find the source... but it's not the first ISP to carry out such censorship. A few major ISPs have already blocked usenet providers and clients.

What is funny though is that it is a futile attempt as it can be easily be bypassed.
Reminds me like when schools tried blocking certain IPs and domains with websense and you could bypass them with proxy servers...
ahh.. those were the days....

I think you have misunderstood the situation. It creates a legal precedent in the UK to make all blocking of websites legal. This means you can block those proxy servers that allow access to those websites as well. So, in point of fact Britain will soon be cut off from all those nasty websites that contain or are able to access pirated work.

Also this is not a legal back and forth case as BT wanted this to happen. It's their preferred way of stopping piracy.

Hi there

I don't encourage piracy but THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO IT --in any case the use of a proxy makes this whole approach totally useless anyway. These days it's VERY VERY difficult to prove a Proxy is supplying pirated content -- the sheer cost of policing all the routings etc makes this process too expensive. A single proxy could be blocked but there's multiple links which makes the possible number of paths to monitor almost impossible.

Stopping piracy is NOT POSSIBLE with purely technical solutions - not without shutting down the whole internet.

Even that's almost impossible -- in some places direct Satellite links are becoming cheap and fast enough -- without having to lay any fibre optic / other cabling with the attendent infrastructure too.

One needs a DECENT COMMERCIAL approach to all this -- price the products properly and piracy becoms just a pin prick rather than a big commercial headache.

Also a lot of so called "Piracy" is done because there isn't any LEGITIMATE way to get hold of the item(s) in question so the MUSIC / FILM bozos need to ensure content IS available when, where and how people want to use it.

These websites can spring up anywhere under a different guise in seconds.

The BEST solution is for Hollywood etc to PROPERLY PRICE THEIR PRODUCTS and don't have these stupid restrictions where products are available months ahead in some places and have regional codes to (feebly) prevent content being shown in other regions.

Also I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for BT but they didn't actually want to do this so it isn't (this time) their fault.

However if you look at the small print of the Court Judgement it does actually say that they have to apply to the Court for EACH website they want to block access to so they can't just willy nilly block websites except for those the UK already has restrictions against such as Child Pornography etc -- and people don't have issues with that. So there is (at the moment) open transparency going on here.

Cheers
jimbo

So people should buy.

But it is possible to block proxy because the proxy server must transfer through the ISP...


and not everyone can connect without ISP.

Hi there

I think you missed a bit of my post

Of course it's possible to block a SINGLE Proxy -- but with Virtual Routing / Multiple Virtual Networks, Dynamic switching etc etc it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to shut access via this method.

I'm just saying that this whole Court Judgement is a load of B/S because it solves ABSOLUTELY NOTHING apart from shutting down one obscure website in the Seychelles.

I'll almost bet that a very similar site is operating right now and those unfortunate enough to have to sign on via B/S Telecom can STILL access it without a problem.

What will also happen as well is that content will be SCRAMBLED and UNSCRAMBLED by people using these sites as well as other techniques -- maybe even by using File transmission via "Snail Mail".
So Hollywood will have to have HUGE numbers of people trying every possible site to download content, get the decryption mechanism and check to see what's being downloaded.

Not a trivial task to solve - and by the time the case gets anywhere near a Court the encryption / file system / Internet site / proxy server will have moved too !! so VERY DIFFICULT TO PROVE.

That will cost them a lot too.


Policing is not IMPOSSIBLE but it justs gets HIDEOUSLY EXPENSIIVE and we keep getting told at least in W.Europe and the USA that there's NO MONEY LEFT FOR MOST GOVT SERVICES including Health, welfare etc.

Not wishing to stray into the political arena but don't you often feel that something's missing when a popular local service is shut down due to "Lack of Money" - often even when the service doesn't actually cost very much -- and then they find exhorbitant - almost obscene amounts of money to pay to Lawyers etc for hideously expensive Court Cases that solve ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - to say nothing of IRAQ - but that's another whole issue we shouldn't get into on a technical Forum.

Even in Countries like ours this type of B/S can happen too -- fortunately (or Unfortunately !!) we've got too much trouble with our own Banks to worry about rather than Internet sites being "monitored" by our Govt.

It just makes much more sense to adopt a sensible COMMERCIAL approach rather than wasting huge amount of manpower and money on trying to prevent what is essentially "Un-preventable".

I don't condone Piracy but I don't condone using these methods in attempting to solve it either.

Take your choice -- we either have a FREE press (and that includes the Internet) or we start sliding towards George Orwells 1984 system or worse.

For those "Educationally challenged" folks - try a few pages of Orwells brilliant masterpiece and in some ways a nasty prophecy of what nearly happened (and possibly still could).

http://orwell.ru/library/novels/1984/english/
(under the UNESCO right this is in the public domain -- Source confirmation is within the document).



...........Quote ....



At present, all George Orwell work is in
public domain in RUSSIAN FEDERATION
(also in Australia and Canada).

Few articles from UNESCO about RF:
________________________________

RUSSIAN FEDERATION
LAW ON COPYRIGHT AND NEIGHBORING RIGHTS

* * *

TITLE II COPYRIGHT

* * *

Term of Copyright

Article 27.

1. Copyright shall have effect throughout the lifetime of the
author and for 50 years after his death, except as provided in
this Article.

* * *

5. Copyright in a posthumous work shall have effect for 50 years
following the publication of the work.

* * *

Public Domain

Article 28. 1. On the expiration of the term of the copyright in
a work, the work shall fall into the public domain.

Works that have never enjoyed protection on the territory of the
Russian Federation shall likewise be deemed fallen into the
public domain.

2. Works that have fallen into the public domain may be freely
used by any person without payment of remuneration. However, the
author's right to claim authorship, his right to be named as
such and his right to protection for his reputation as author
shall be respected * * *
________________________________

Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights
Russian Federation
(C) UNESCO
URL: http://www.unesco.org/
E-mail: webmaster@unesco.org
Original of the law is on:
http://www.unesco.org/culture/copy/c.../sommaire.html

Cheers
jimbo

Learned a new thing

This is just the beginning. The sad thing is, most people will just let this happen. This will be the anchor that allows the DEA to be enforced. Before we know it, it will be "Great Firewall of Britain."

I've made my thoughts on this clear, in fact I am a member of ORG (who were referenced in the article), but just to be clear I do not condone piracy.

Neither do I condone these methods though, in particular, under the DEA (which I maintain this is a small step towards enforcing) a website can be blocked if it "is, has been or potentially could be used for piracy." That's every site on the damn net!

If they keep doing it like this then fine, fair enough. It needs to be all ISP's though. Even then it will fail, but at least they are trying.