
The End of Net Neutrality? British Telecom ordered to block access to NewzBin2 - OoTheNigerian
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14322957
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petercooper
_The landmark case is the first time that an ISP has been ordered to block
access to such a site._

The key is the word "such". British ISPs have had the IWF-oriented child porn
provisions in place for some time now. It even led to Wikipedia getting
blocked in some cases a while back:
[http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/British_ISPs_restrict_access_to_...](http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/British_ISPs_restrict_access_to_Wikipedia_amid_child_pornography_allegations)

~~~
socksy
That is an opt-in list of sites to ban. My ISP, for instance, does not block
those sites, and no-one has been ordered to follow the list. It's a bit
different than being ordered by a judge using the new DEA legislation.

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gwern
> Justice Arnold ruled that BT must use its blocking technology CleanFeed -
> which is currently used to prevent access to websites featuring child sexual
> abuse - to block Newzbin 2.

Good old slippery slope.

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Luyt
_"... it helps to protect the innocent from highly offensive and illegal
content," said a spokesman for BT."_

Here we have it again, the 'Think of the children' argument[1]. This time BT
throws Usenet binaries on the filth heap and uses the good old cliché to
criminalize it. It always works!

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children>

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nemof
Any serious file sharer in the UK wouldn't use BT if they could help it, they
are known for appalling service, traffic shaping and bandwidth throttling. If
you happen to be in UK, I'd recommend trying an ISP like bethere, there's no
guarantee they cant be threatened with action, but they are definitely much
more filesharer friendly, which is the way they've designed their service to
be.

In regards to newzbin2, it's worth noting it's a TOR website. Can this
actually be blocked? Here's a non-onionised link:

<https://sc3njt2i2j4fvqa3.tor2web.org/>

It's also worth noting that newsgroup filesharing, as backwards as the whole
idea sounds, is in certain ways leaps and bounds better than bittorrent. I
migrated from bittorrent, which I still occasionally use, to using a newsgroup
provider called giganews. Yes it's a paid for service, but in this case the
amount of value that you receive is huge.

For anyone with a spare five minutes who's interested in newsgroups, I suggest
you look at what you can do with sickbeard, couch potato and a good newsgroup
provider.

~~~
omh
_If you happen to be in UK, I'd recommend trying an ISP like bethere_

While Be are a much better ISP, they do implement the IWF watchlist and so are
technically capable of complying with a similar order, should one come along.
If you really care about this then I'd recommend one of the smaller ISPs, such
as AAISP, who have said that they don't (and won't!) do any filtering.

Of course if everyone starts moving to ISPs like that then it's likely that
the government will try to force the issue.

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xedarius
I thought I lived in the UK and not China. So now I have to put up with a half
baked economy, the media running the country, corrupt police force and now
government tailored internet. At least in China they've got a strong economy,
if the human rights record is a little sketchy. This is bad news for the
internet in the UK, and anyone who thinks they will only use this powers for
good is naive in the extreme.

~~~
peteretep
It's funny how only people who've never lived in the Third World ever compare
the UK or the US to Third World countries.

~~~
catnip
You think china is third world? Come visit shanghai you can get your teeth
fixed.

~~~
xedarius
Far from it, I have huge respect for China. However, coming from a supposedly
developed western country I find the activity of my government weak. Thanks
for the stereotype racial slur also.

~~~
catnip
You're welcome.

------
pbhjpbhj
> _He continued: "It knows that the users of Newzbin 2 include BT subscribers,
> and it knows those users use its service to receive infringing copies of
> copyright works made available to them by Newzbin 2."_

Under this precedent it seems we can sue BT for allowing criminals to make
money using premium paid phone scams. They provide the infrastructure, they
know it's happening, they're even profiting (directly) from the crimes.

If this weren't MPA run then BT would actually be going down based on such a
judgement.

Also I'm looking forward to suing the government for allowing drunk drivers to
use their roads ...

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mooism2
Network neutrality ended when they started blocking child porn.

Or possibly when some of the phone companies started offering free access to
Facebook, while charging for the rest of the web.

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speckledjim
The more surprising thing is that they seem to genuinely believe they _can_
"block" content. Sorry, the internet doesn't work like that.

~~~
omh
Actually the judge says:

    
    
           Finally, I agree with counsel for the Studios that the order
           would be justified even if it only prevented access to Newzbin2
           by a minority of users.
    

Though he probably doesn't realise quite how ineffective this will be!

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JonnieCache
Brilliant. They have caught on to the filesharing tech of the mid 90s. By this
rate of progress, they should work out how to clamp down on bittorrent by
around 2017.

~~~
omh
They now have a method and a precedent for blocking "bad" web sites. Pirate
Bay will be next.

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davepm
Does this mean that BT will no longer provide NNTP access? I've always laughed
at ISP's chasing pirates while giving access to the material themselves!

~~~
xlevus
Newzbin isn't an NNTP provider. They just provide the .torrent equivalent of
Usenet.

So yeah, they will most likely still allow access to NNTP.

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eftpotrm
I don't mind this and think the selling of this as 'The End of Net Neutrality'
is OTT hyperbole.

I don't believe anyone's arguing that what NewzBin2 are doing is legal. Nor do
I believe there's any doubt that it's technically possible for BT to do what
they're being asked to do here by the courts. It's not like they're being
asked to do a real-time per-page filter of Flickr for inappropriate content,
for example. There's one site, with overwhelmingly illegal content, and
they're being asked to block it.

If BT were restricting access to iPlayer or YouTube in favour of BT Vision
then I agree, that would be a Net Neutrality issue. If they were being asked
to do realtime filtering of user-generated content then I agree, that would be
a moronic request issue. Neither of them are true though, this is a static
block of overwhelmingly illegal content and I don't for one minute see why
this is a problem.

~~~
MrVitaliy
It's hard to imagine a different ruling in this case. Courts respect copyright
laws and in this case there is a clear infringement.

What I don't get is the involvement of BT, they are just an internet provider.
Why wouldn't MPA directly sue NewzBin2 and shut them down?

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mikemaccana
This has nothing to do with net neutrality. Net Neutrality is about ensuring
consumers have equal access to providers of content and providers of content
have equal access to consumers.

It's not about allowing piracy - quoting wikipedia:

"Chris Elsworth, the main operator of Newzbin, had said repeatedly at trial
that he had no knowledge of infringement occurring on the service, and that
Newzbin's categories for "CAM," "screener," "telesync," "DVD,"R5 retail","Blu-
ray," and "HD DVD" didn't suggest any evidence of infringement."

These guys were ripping people off and got shut down.

Net Neutrality is about making sure YouTube doesn't pay your ISP more to favor
them over Vimeo. It's not about some guy stealing movies, and by associating
net neutrality with piracy you hurt both net neutrality and people who make
stuff (people like us).

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antihero
Hadrian's firewall symbolises that profit is more important than freedom of
speech. We didn't vote for this bullshit.

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scotto
This is one of the few things that scares the _hell_ out of me. On this path,
we are all just one wrong piece of content/accusation away from persecution.

Call me a dreamer but what other solution is there than a completely de-
centralized network ala P2P style. No backbones, no root DNS, no IP address
authority. Just pure unadulterated internetworked chaos. There's got to be a
way.

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tobylane
Worth noting (as the article doesn't, nor the first thoughts of many I heard)
is that this is files stored on the website, which doesn't apply to torrents.

