TorrentFreak Blocked By British ISP Sky's Porn Filter 171
judgecorp writes "TorrentFreak, a news site covering copyright issues and file sharing news, has been blocked by the porn filter of British ISP Sky. As TorrentFreak points out, the filter is provided by Symantec, and doesn't block Symantec when the company reports malware news: 'Thanks to their very own self-categorization process they wear the "Technology and Telecommunication" label. Is their website blocked by any of their own filters? I won’t even bother answering that.'"
From the TorrentFreak article: "Our crimes are the topics we cover. As readers know we write about file-sharing, copyright and closely linked issues including privacy and web censorship. We write about the positives and the negatives of those topics and we solicit comments from not only the swarthiest of pirates, but also the most hated anti-piracy people on the planet."
Re:Works for me (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The question (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. Next question?
Re:The question (Score:5, Informative)
The question is whether this was always the plan. First put in place the infrastructure for censorship -- eek, porn! -- and then slide on down the slippery slope.
They always said it was. The thing is most people just got stuck on the "think of the children and didn't look at the rest. The list includes: [newstatesman.com]
"violent material", "extremist related content", "anorexia and eating disorder websites", "suicide related websites", "alcohol" and "smoking", "web forums", "esoteric material", "Web blocking circumvention tools", and "sites where the main purpose is to provide information on subjects such as respect for a partner, abortion, gay and lesbian lifestyle, contraceptive, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy."
Re:The question (Score:3, Informative)
Anyone calling it "Hadrian's Firewall" yet?
Yup, for a while now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian's_Firewall [wikipedia.org]
Re:Works for me (Score:5, Informative)
Ignore me. Turns out the blocking only occurs if you have the under-18 filter turned on - which I managed to get from the article :)
True, but it is the default for all new internet connections. Many people just leave things at the default, and may not even know that you can have it disabled.
Re:I'd take this with a pinch of salt (Score:5, Informative)
Either Mr Cameron lied or the ISPs have radically over-reached in the level of national censorship.
Have a read of this article - David Cameron's internet porn filter is the start of censorship creep [theguardian.com] - and make your own mind up. For example this quote:
"The category of 'obscene content', for instance, which is blocked even on the lowest setting of BT's opt-in filtering system, covers "sites with information about illegal manipulation of electronic devices [and] distribution of software" – in other words, filesharing and music downloads, debate over which has been going on in parliament for years. It looks as if that debate has just been bypassed entirely, by way of scare stories about five-year-olds and fisting videos. Whatever your opinion on downloading music and cartoons for free, doing so is neither obscene nor pornographic."