Following The Pirate Bay, providers are now also being required to block the bittorrent sites 1337x, LimeTorrents, YTS, Kickasstorrents and EZTV. This blockade follows a ruling by the judge, after a case that was brought by the Brein foundation.
In a press release the foundation announces that it has enforced the blockade after a lawsuit against Delta Fiber. Other providers have also started blocking after this ruling. Not only does it apply to the sites, but also to some proxy and mirror sites, which provide access to the bittorrent sites via a roundabout way.
In the press release, the Brein foundation compares the blockade with that of The Pirate Bay, which was blocked after a long legal procedure: “The sites are comparable in content and function to The Pirate Bay, which is already blocked, after which the visit there is increased by more than 95%. walked back”.
Big grain of salt
95 percent sounds like a huge success for the anti-piracy foundation. However, these figures should be taken with a grain of salt. Of course, visitors return to a blocked site, but such a blocked site can easily be reached thanks to a VPN connection or a (not yet blocked) proxy or mirror site. Moreover, these figures are not measurable – and therefore do not fall under the stated percentage.
It is also doubtful whether such a block is really useful. It opens up new cat-and-mouse games from various proxy sites and alternatives, which then have to be blocked again. The sites can also still be visited via a VPN connection.
Good luck needed
Brain Foundation, that will be funded by many companies, which includes Sony, Warner Bros, and Netflix, appears to have shifted its focus again to claim success. Previously, the foundation tried to hunt down users by collecting IP addresses from torrent users and writing them to them. Providers who have the name and address details behind the IP addresses were not so keen to hand them over to the foundation just like that. The court ruled that providers are not allowed to do this either.
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