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Silly Australia, you can’t block The Pirate Bay
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The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay has been blocked in Australia for a matter of hours, but that won’t stop many people from accessing it. Why? Because despite a long-running legal battle, an official Federal Court order and ISP-level blocks by the likes of Telstra, Vodafone and Optus, the popular torrenting website is still accessible.
Reports emerged yesterday that Telstra had begun blocking The Pirate Bay, following a ruling by the Federal Court under Australia’s new site-blocking legislation. The court found in favour of rights holders including Roadshow Films and Foxtel, ordering Australia’s biggest ISPs to block a number of sites including The Pirate Bay, TorrentHound, Torrentz, isoHunt and SolarMovie.
And the blocks have started. Visitors to the 30-plus Pirate Bay domains listed in court documents are being met with a “Content Denied” message.
Enlarge ImageAfter the Federal Court ordered ISPs to block a number of piracy sites, they’re being met with blocks. This is the message Telstra is showing its users when they try to visit thepiratebay.org.
Claire Reilly/CNET
But it turns out you don’t need a Virtual Private Network, a dodgy IT guy at work or knowledge of how to reconfigure your DNS settings to get around Australia’s top court. You just need Google.
A quick Google search for The Pirate Bay turns up a number of proxy lists for the torrenting hub, listing different URLs to access the site. Running my smartphone on Telstra’s 4G network, the second proxy I tried on one of these lists got me through to the real-deal Pirate Bay site. No “Content Denied” message in sight.
The same proxy also worked on Optus, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile (an Optus reseller).
CNET understands that Optus has not yet implemented site-blocks, but the company says it “will comply with the court orders” and is expected to do so by the cut off date of January 27, 2017.
Telstra did not comment specifically on the continuing availability of proxy sites, but said in a statement it is “complying” with the courts order.
Vodafone declined to provide comment.
Enlarge ImageProxies for The Pirate Bay are still accessible in Australia, despite the site-blocking order.
Dave Cheng/CNET
Lucky for the rights holders that spent all that time and money in court, I have no intention of pirating movies.
But many Aussies do.
Even if a domain is successfully walled off, Australians are already vaunting their ability to get around the blocks. One internet user has posted a video showing how to circumvent Telstra’s block, while copyright-focused website TorrentFreak is reporting a number of ways to get around the simple DNS blocking being used by ISPs.
We tested just one proxy found on one page listing Pirate Bay mirror sites. But it seems to confirm the multiple criticisms levelled at Australia’s new site-blocking regime, that attempts to block piracy sites amount to nothing more than a game of whack-a-mole.
Just days after the landmark court case finally ordered ISPs to start such a system, it appears that site-blocking could be a pretty futile venture.
Updated on December 22 at 10:25 a.m. AEDT: Added comment from Telstra and Optus.
