DailyTech - Torrent Sites Blacklist North American Users

Submit News

Internet Torrent Sites Blacklist North American Users
Tom Corelis (Blog) - September 30, 2007 4:15 PM

67 comment(s) - last by gochichi.. on Oct 24 at 5:01 PM

Citing increased pressure from piracy enforcers, operators call it quits

Within the last week, two popular BitTorrent sites began blocking users located in North America: Isohunt.com’s trackers now block users in the United States; and Demonoid.com blocks users located in Canada.

Starting last week, Canada-based Isohunt posted a notice on its front page, stating that it has disabled access from users in the U.S. to the BitTorrent trackers at Torrentbox.com and Podtropolis.com, which are operated by Isohunt. Isohunt elaborates, “This is due to the U.S.'s hostility towards P2P technologies, and we feel with our current lawsuit brought by the MPAA, we can no longer ensure your security and privacy in the U.S.” Isohunt, which only indexes the torrents posted at other trackers like The Pirate Bay or TorrentBox, then asked U.S.-based users to add and use other, unrestricted trackers in its search results.

Shortly afterwards, Demonoid.com – also based in Canada – went offline, and many speculated that the site had either been taken down by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), or suffered major server failures.

With rumors flying, P2P news site ZeroPaid.com received an e-mail of indeterminate source which confirmed the server troubles, and that the site was indeed undergoing a rebuild. However, because the e-mail could not be verified, and Demonoid’s operator “Deimos” never officially commented on Demonoid’s status, ZeroPaid’s e-mail was not posted until today.

Regardless, Demonoid’s tracker was up by September 29, 2007. The website followed, resuming operations on September 30. Unfortunately, the return has a catch: due to interference from the CRIA, Canadian users are now blocked from Demonoid’s website and its trackers.

Instead users are now redirected to a web page with the following message: “We received a letter from a lawyer representing the CRIA, they were threatening with legal action and we need to start blocking Canadian traffic because of this. If you reside in Canada, [this] is the reason you are being redirected to this message. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for any inconvenience.”

With the rising popularity of BitTorrent, piracy enforcers are giving the protocol increasing amounts of attention. Recent e-mail and source code leaked from MediaDefender indicate that the firm seems to devote the most attention to BitTorrent, which, according to a widely-quoted 2004 study, accounts for at least a third of all internet traffic.

While sites like Demonoid and Isohunt appear to have caved in to these pressures, others choose a defiant path and turn pressure into mockery: The Pirate Bay’s legal threats page posts dozens of takedown notices and their humorous replies, and MiiVi.org advertises itself as a “tribute to the fall of MediaDefender,” hosting an open tracker sponsored in part by The Pirate Bay, Suprnova, Mininova and others.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

RE: MPAA sucks

By omnicronx on 10/1/2007 10:42:40 AM , Rating: 2

Because your grandmother and teenage sister always sell bootleg DVD's on the side of the street! I think he is talking about those who sell the DVD's not those who buy them. When i go to China town in Toronto, the streets are littered with bootleg DVD salesman selling copies for $4-5 and thats just not right.

If you are willing to get a hardcopy copy of a movie (meaning you like it or want the movie) you should be paying for it, plain and simple. I feel no guilt downloading crappy movies that are in the theatre that i would have never gone to see (in which I usually only watch because i am bored), but if you are going to buy it, you should be buying a legal copy.

Parent

RE: MPAA sucks

By Camps on 10/2/2007 1:03:51 AM , Rating: 2

It's obvious that the market is trying to dictate the cost of music and movies but with the amount of money and lobbyist the RIAA thugs can throw around they are forcing their own pricing. The greedy men with beady eyes will get their due.

People who torrent most of these items have a very low chance of even buying the material in the first place. 20 dollars for a dvd and 60 for a video game is robbery so people vote with their wallet.

Parent

RE: MPAA sucks

By othercents on 10/3/2007 1:44:30 PM , Rating: 2

I think it is obvious to some that if given the choice to pay to watch a movie in the theater or download it for free, most people would rather download it. Now if you were only given the choice of watching the movie in a theater or not watching in at all, then there is a good percentage that would have downloaded for free would now watch it in the theater. There are many people who just download the movie and either store it on their hard drive or burn it to DVD never intending on buying a copy.

Overall theater pricing has gotten ridiculous especially if it is a family of four. If it is going to be a great movie then just buy it on DVD that way the whole family can watch it over and over again for free. Now the catch comes when little Johnny isn't as nice to the DVD or equipment and it gets all scratched up and unreadable. This is where being able to make copies for personal use works out well.

I definitely can't agree with anyone that would download a movie with the intention of keeping it in their library to watch over and over again. You should buy the DVD.

Other

Parent

"Nowadays you can buy a CPU cheaper than the CPU fan." -- Unnamed AMD executive