Major Labels Block 40 Pirate Domains, Search Deindexing More Concerning

The world's largest recording labels are expanding their site-blocking program after obtaining an order from a Paris court. The order also requires search engines to deindex blocked domains from search results, which pushes look-a-like platforms to the top making malicious sites more visible. This disproportionately affects inexperienced users, undermines confidence in search engines, and has only a limited effect on those who regularly pirate.

To a greater or lesser extent and depending on region, rightsholders across all major industries are now regular participants in site-blocking actions.

Most blocking takes place to prevent access to movies and TV shows on static platforms such as torrent sites and streaming indexes, plus streaming platforms typically operated by IPTV providers offering live sports. These video-based sectors now account for the majority of blocking but the major recording labels, publishers, and video game companies are all still involved.

New Action By The Music Industry

In France, where rightsholders are taking small, incremental steps to make blocking easier and potentially more effective, the major recording labels have recently obtained permission from a Paris court to add even more domains to their ever-expanding blocklists.

First reported by French news outlet L’Informe, the blocking application was made under the umbrella of collection organization SCPP (Civil Society of Phonogram Producers), which represents major labels including Sony, Universal and Warner, plus hundreds of others.

The 40 targets are domains operated by familiar pirate sites or those that facilitate access to them. They include torrent9, cpasbien, yggtorrent, tirexo, zone-annuaire, and wawacity.

Also on the list, three proxy domains that until recently helped users to access the previously-blocked BitTorrent DHT index, Magnet DL. Since that site disappeared offline a few weeks ago, blocking these three proxies (magnetdl.unblocked.id, magnetdl.uproxy.to, magnetdl.proxyninja.net) will achieve nothing, but it’s possible that French ISPs will implement blocking regardless.

SCPP Evidence Supports Site-Blocking

Citing the decision of the Paris court, L’Informe reports that “SCPP established in a sufficiently convincing manner that the disputed sites, which are aimed at a French-speaking public, allow Internet users, via the aforementioned access paths, to download or continuously access protected works via hyperlinks without obtaining authorization from rights holders.”

Since in this context hyperlinking amounts to copyright infringement, the court agreed that ISP blocking is warranted. In the event that the sites switch to new or alternative domains to evade blocking, SCPP will be able to return to court to have those blocked too.

SCPP did just that in April and then again in May, to counter two recent rounds of circumvention by torrent9, cpasbien, and yggtorrent. This latest order comes in response to what appears to be a third, but certainly won’t be the last.

Deindexing Domains From Search Results

Search engine deindexing usually accompanies ISP blocking measures since the latter is believed to make the former more effective. For example, in a scenario where an ISP implements blocking measures against PersistentPirateSite.com, former users of that now-blocked domain may turn to Google hoping to discover the site’s new and unblocked domains. If all goes to plan, access to the site is restored.

In a combined blocking/deindexing scenario, domains blocked by ISPs are also removed from search results. It doesn’t necessarily follow that users searching for new domains will leave empty-handed, but deindexing does make the task harder for the less experienced. Using the latest order as an example, ISPs are required to block torrent9.sb, torrent9.rs, torrent9.ink, and nine others connected to a site of the same name.

With all of these domains now absent from search results, less experienced users who search for ‘torrent9’ will find dozens and dozens of almost identical domains, but no idea which – if any – lead to the real site. They may not even be aware that some may exist purely to spread malware and empty their wallets. The image below is just a small sample of the choices available.

I’m Spartacus! No… I’m Spartacus!

At this point it would be quite reasonable to conclude that the root of this problem isn’t deindexing at all, it’s a problem faced by those who prefer to get content for free rather than paying for it. On that basis, there will be no sympathy when instead of downloading an album, users silently install malware instead. Unfortunately, that becomes everyone’s problem.

Mitigating Piracy Should Not Increase Online Risks

The phrase “what’s illegal offline should be illegal online” is used to highlight disparity between laws in the physical world and those on the internet. Yet accepted standards in the ‘real world’ often tend to be higher than those applied online.

In this case, more savvy internet pirates will circumvent these recent blocks within seconds, negating any need to visit search engines, thereby avoiding the dangers associated with bogus sites. With every blocking measure, pirates are becoming even more savvy.

For those who are less savvy, the reverse is true. Forced to visit search engines, soon they will only see bogus platforms or at the very least, those sites will feature prominently in search results, appear more legitimate, and attract even more clicks. Increased traffic will likely lead to more revenue, increased visibility, and even more unwitting visitors than before.

When mitigating offenses in the ‘real’ world, solutions that expose people to even more risk are avoided. When dealing with the same online, the importance of not allowing site operators to generate revenue “that funds wider crime” is immediately forgotten, even when the measures themselves contribute to that.

Additional verification is needed but if a report concerning a Z-Library scam turns out to be accurate, the consequences of giving scam websites the oxygen to operate freely couldn’t be any more clear. When that happens without any progress being made in the reduction of piracy rates, there has to be a better way.

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