Indian ISP Blocks A Bunch Of Websites To Try To Prevent File Sharing Of A Single Movie
from the overblocking dept
TorrentFreak has the story of an Indian court seemingly having no problems issuing widespread ISP blockades in response to a request from movie studio Reliance Entertainment. The reasoning is that Reliance is hoping to prevent the file sharing of its latest movie. But rather than narrowly targeting the file sharing of that movie (or of other Reliance properties), the court ordered complete blocking of a variety of websites including Megaupload and BTJunkie. The Times of India, which wrote about this as well, notes that the whole thing is quite "strange" to cyberlaw experts.Beyond just the oddity of massive overblocking, the blockades themselves present a rather bizarre message:
Other experts quoted in the Times of India article suggest that perhaps Reliance is misinterpreting a court order, because such broad blocking is not reasonable, nor permitted under the law. As the article says it's "debatable" if a site can be held responsible for the actions of users (especially when the actions are predicted future actions!).
"Yes, there is a John Doe order. But Reliance Communications seems to have misinterpreted it. If the judge, who gave the order, comes to know about how it has been used, I am sure he will disagree. So far, there is no evidence that members at the blocked file-hosting websites had indulged in piracy of Don 2. It's purely speculative. It is like shutting down a public library just because some one may go there and leave a book about bomb making," he said.The ISP doing the blocking is Reliance Communications, which appears to have the same parent company as Reliance Entertainment (shocking, I know), says that the blocking is perfectly legal, because it "has to adhere to any copyright infringement notices and court orders." Of course, it's still not entirely clear what the court actually ordered.
Prakash added that even if there was piracy of Don 2 on the said websites, proper procedures should have been followed to block them. "Blocking websites at ISP level is arbitrary and illegal. According to the IT rules in India, only DIT is empowered to issue orders on blocking of a website. Not even Department of Telecom, which looks after the affairs of ISPs, can order blocking of websites without involving DIT," he said.
Either way, those in India who use these services for legitimate purposes are up in arms. TorrentFreak quotes Gaurav Shukla, who runs an Android news site and makes use of file lockers for legitimate purposes, but who's now blocked from doing so.
"Since Friday morning I can't access any file-hosting websites. Not all web users are pirates. We share legitimate files through websites like Megaupload and Filesonic."Once again it seems like in the desperate attempt to block any and all infringement, you get significant collateral damage. Oh, and apparently the block hasn't worked... as a DVD screener copy of the film was ripped and is being widely shared online.
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Filed Under: blocking, copyright, india, movies
Companies: megaupload, reliance communications, reliance entertainment
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Knowing who to blame...
Nothing like pissing off all your customers and potential customers.
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They have gone nuclear
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significant collateral damage
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thats how its done
In the US they just default to litigation instead of taking any real action. Purchasing properties both up and downstream is a far more effective solution.
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Barbra Streisand Effect?
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Re: Barbra Streisand Effect?
I'm tempted to download it and I don't even know what movie it is.
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Shape of things to come
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That doesn't do shit
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Dec 28th, 2011 @ 12:18pm
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Dec 28th, 2011 @ 12:18pm
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Say what?!?!
How did I get dragged into this?
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Me: "The house is one fire"
Masnick: "yeah, but look at ugly front gate. We need to get someone to fix the gate"
It's a pitiful end to a pitiful year. Perhaps the failure of Step2 will wake you up a bit!
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Re:
You: "The ship is on fire so we need to sink the ship!"
Us: "How about we just use a fire extinguisher on the fire instead of sinking the entire ship?"
You: "Don't you care that the ship is on fire!! We need to sink it so we can put the fire out and prevent any more fires!"
Us: "Then we will no longer have the ship anyways. Lets use an extinguisher."
You: "NOOO!! WE MUST SINK SHIP!!!!! NO OTHER WAY WILL WORK!!"
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Re:
Yes, because piracy is a much more important battle than censorship could ever be, clearly.
I'm sorry that your piracy problem has created my censorship problem. Censorship is now my main problem so if you'll kindly learn how to turn a trick perhaps we can solve the problems together. Otherwise, your piracy problem will fast become far less of a problem, a non-issue issue if you will.
To say nothing to the fact that sites were blocked because of possibilities. Yah, that'll go far (given velocity from a big stick, zee bat)
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Masnick: "yeah, but look at ugly front gate. We need to get someone to fix the gate"
Reality.
You: "The house is on fire!"
Me: "No. That's just the strong sun scorching your roof a little at the corners. Here, why don't you put up some solar panels and benefit from the sun."
You: "No, the HOUSE IS ON FIRE!! QUICK, DEMAND THE GOVERNMENT DIVERT ALL WATER IN THE COUNTY TO ME!"
Me: "Well, no, that would be an overreaction, and a poor use of water. I'm serious: if you just put up some solar panels, not only will the tiles of your roof not turn brown like that, but you'll also get tons of added benefit."
You: "You fire apologist!"
Me: *sigh*
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WTG Mike!
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And in a crowded website, no less.
Tsk, tsk.
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Mike doesn't like to think of it as fire, but the house is burning down. His view is we should all pull out marshmallows and enjoy it. It's an incredibly short term, self serving view.
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Very existential, dude.
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As for censorship, whoops!, blocking somehow makes infringement go way then this "Oh, and apparently the block hasn't worked... as a DVD screener copy of the film was ripped and is being widely shared online." should put an end to that. I can see the film being dowloaded even more widely now. Not only in India but in the wider Indian diaspora.
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that was predictable.
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I will be one of the first to upload DON2 on the internet
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:(
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Torrent!
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http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QTR7NBL7
http://174.140.154.22/?d=QTR7NBL7
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Not the complete story
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Kinda stupid
Also, one can circumvent the mediafire.com block by using https:// instead. lol.
They use this software called 'netsweeper'. I wonder if there any exploits available for that.
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Reliance Entertainment: President India! Someone from another country just downloaded a single film of ours over Limewire!
Indian Government Official: ... SHUT. DOWN. EVERYTHING.
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Can they stop piracy or they can only blocks sites??
Although file sharing sites not only shares illegal content, but also some illegitimate content like we transfer huge amount of data through them. For sending more than 20MB of data, there is no good way to send it without torrent or file sharing sites.
What are they trying to do?? Even Hollywood also not stopping piracy, but why Bollywood? If they stop these sites, then why the fuck we need 10+MBPS speed?? Just for surfing??? Can it be a trick from ISP's??
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