KickassTorrents, H33T and Fenopy blocked in the UK
It appears that media rights groups are still convinced that blocking sites or terminating accounts is the way to go in regards to the thriving P2P scene on today's Internet.
It all started with the blocking of the torrent indexing site The Piratebay last year in the UK. The move backfired heavily though, not only did traffic to the site increase, likely due to increased media coverage, but it also saw the creation of so-called proxy websites that enabled users from the UK to bypass the block and access the site like before.
News broke this week that three additional torrent indexing sites, KickassTorrents, H33T and Fenopy, are no longer reachable for customers of major UK Internet Service Providers BT, Virgin Media, O2 or Be There.
Users from the UK who try to access the sites in question will receive information that the pages have been blocked. The message is different depending on which provider is being used, but all state that the providers comply with the law to block those sites.
As usual, there are several ways to bypass the block and access those sites. I think it is interesting to note that the blocking prevents the sites in question from informing UK citizens about their point of view on the whole issue as those affected cannot access the information posted on those sites.
So what works to bypass the block?
- You can use the Tor Network to access the sites.
- Any VPN not run by the ISPs that block the site will do.
- Any web proxy will do.
- Opera with its Turbo feature enabled will bypass the block.
- A site like Come.in lets you access the blocked sites.
- Repress works too.
- Mirror sites work.
There are probably hundreds of options out there to access those sites. Some may go down in the coming weeks or months while others, like the Tor Network, Opera or VPNs won't.
The blocking continues and more and more sites do get blocked in the UK or other countries, often without the proper legal way or giving admins or owners of blocked sites an option to express their point of view on the matter or postpone the blocking until a decision has been made in court.
The options listed above do work quite well for all of those situations though.
He-he. Not Any VPN will allow you to download torrents. Guys will obviously need a seed4.me VPN now :)
Another useless round of whack-a-mole. It won’t make a difference to remotely savvy Internet users, but it does concern me that the courts seem to be so trigger happy and only interested in preventing ‘copyright infringement’. Of course, simply browsing a torrent site is not copyright infringement, so barring access to the entire place is overkill and in a system that was not blatantly corrupt would not be the acceptable solution, but why is it that copyright seems to be the entire focus and the top priority?
Hoi Martin, To bad for the English because KickassTorrents is a great website.
I am however wondering why you did not talk about mirror site as a alternative for the piratebay?
I mentioned a couple of alternatives in the article.
For me I simply changed my ISP’s default DNS server to a public one (Google) to get around any blocks or throttling of torrent sites. My ISP (Rogers – Canada) used to block my access to ISOHunt at the time it was my favourite torrent site. Then I discovered KAT, but Rogers in time began to block them. Then I read an article about the simplest way to change ISP’s blocking / throttling was to change my DNS, so I did and now I have full free access to KAT. Not going back to ISOHunt ever since they loss the lawsuit, the site now sucks.
i am a novice an dont know how to change dns ect can any1 help please as i am a single dad 2 my 3 year old son who has been ripped rite off by my government an am not working trying to live on £120 a week an thats feed my boy pay mu bills (that for ever go up to bail out the government) ect ect all i want r cartoons 4 my boy as i ant afford sky tv THX nib
They can actually redirect DNS requests to their own DNS if they want, now I don’t know if that’s for any DNS server or they have to specify their IPs. If someone more knowledgeable could clarify that for us that would be good.
There’s one excellent,but rarely mentioned,torrent site that has escaped so far, but I’m loathe to mention its name for obvious reasons!
You know, I would’ve taking your comment a bit more serious if I wouldn’t have noticed how small-minded, insulting and childish your username is. Pretty sure piracy is stealing, and as we all know “God hates thieves”. Do us all a favour, stop acting all innocent and stop all of your hypocrisy.
The Good Lord believes in free torrents my friend.
I couldn’t give a monkeys what people call themselves as usernames & care even less what they think of mine.Everyone has to find something to be ‘offended’ by these days.Grow up,or better still grow a pair & mind your own business.
@^Whatthehell?,
Do us all a favor and learn how to spell and incorporate correct punctuation into your lame remarks.
Do us all a favor and do not bring god into your small minded illiterate garbage you call a post.
Do us all a favor and keep your comments in your tiny brained head.
Gods of all religions are nothing more than a crutch for those who fear death, or an excuse to go to war. Has nothing to do with the subject matter of this page.
@sigh…
First of all, I wasn’t the one to bring up the God subject. Do us all a favour and buy yourself some proper glasses.
Second of all, I think you’re the one who needs to work on your spelling and punctuation. Just “saying” that for the sake of it, doesn’t make you look any smarter.
And third of all, you’re attacking me for pointing out that this kid is using hate speech in his username? Take a good look around, I think you’ll see a lot of support of the equality of marriage this week. Don’t make this discussion dumber than it already was….
[QUOTE]”God hates thieves”[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]First of all, I wasn’t the one to bring up the God subject. Do us all a favour and buy yourself some proper glasses.[/QUOTE]
Your quotes, so stop blatantly lying.
[QUOTE]Second of all, I think you’re the one who needs to work on your spelling and punctuation. Just “saying” that for the sake of it, doesn’t make you look any smarter.[/QUOTE]
There is nothing wrong with my spelling or punctuation, you are the one that is just “saying” it because you are the illiterate one.
I’m not trying to look smarter, i am because i can spell and you cannot.
And for MY third point, i am not attacking you because you do no approve of hate speach, so don’t try to convolute the conversation with your small minded misinterpretation…im pointing out that you should be leaving god out of this.
You have failed to understand anything written and have posted yet another stupid comment due to your limited intelligence.
Moron.
You have exactly proven my point. I don’t believe I need to add anything else. Goodbye, Troll!
What point?..you have made no valid point!!.
Just go back to the rock you crawled out from under, potato.
Finally, who gives a rats bum what you believe..now shoo.