
UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access - gszathmari
https://unblockoz.org
======
gravelc
Much, much more frightening than website blocking in Australia is this:

[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-05/telco-industry-
pushes-...](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-05/telco-industry-pushes-for-
metadata-collection-changes/8162896)

Our esteemed government told us universal metadata collection was for fighting
terrorism. Then, over the Christmas period when the public is disconnected
from politics, a sham enquiry was held to open up metadata to civil courts
(i.e. for copyright, divorce cases etc).

Needs a bit more than router DNS changes to protect one's self from this. VPN
at a minimum. Given our already rubbish speeds, it's really annoying to cop a
further speed and latency hit from a VPN (along with the $$$ it costs).

~~~
mmjaa
Australians simply don't care about this shit. They've lived in an
industrialised colony, with all its rewards, for too long - as long as they're
still able to live the good life, who cares what the government gets up to ..

Its a shame, because Australia has, in many ways, a culture that could produce
great things. But its still ham-strung by its dependence on colonialist
thinking in the halls of power.

~~~
vacri
What do you mean by 'colonialist thinking'?

~~~
watbe
Only a guess, but I think it means "the government knows what is best for its
citizens".

~~~
ue_
That is hardly unique to Australia. Britain, Canada, NZ all have no problem at
all with censorship, so much that they will even censor fiction.

These countries, one of whuch I am a citizen of, have not a single strand of
libertarianism in government nor populace, and it's a shame.

~~~
wycx
Others would disagree that libertarianism is absent, and that its absence is a
shame, e.g. [1]. Indeed, they say that the influence of libertarianism is
responsible for some of Australia's governmental problems, most conspicuously
on display this past week.

[1] [https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/06/01/rundle-the-liberal-
part...](https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/06/01/rundle-the-liberal-partys-
inevitable-decay/)

~~~
ggame
Liberals are not very libertarian; especially under Malcolm Turnbull. There is
a small strand of libertarianism and that's the Liberal Democratic Party.

Australia has an unsustainable property bubble that has made a large chunk of
the middle class very wealthy. This has shifted the culture from self reliance
to 'don't rock the boat.' This alone is an anti-innovation tragedy.

The bubble will pop eventually and the taxes will go up. Aus can't print new
money and we have an untouchable entitlement culture. If you can't pay the new
taxes they will use the firewall to block your site. It's going to be a mess
and I wish them the best of luck.

~~~
mmjaa
You nailed the entitled thing. I'm a born and bred sand groper .. So .. After
quite some time abroad, getting to know the species, my sojourns back home to
Australia led me to truly cringe at just how entitled folks are, down under.
It was a bit humbling to have been driven off the edge of the continent by the
culture, even though the land itself pulled me with much gravity, wave by dune
by storm ..

------
secoif
Something very unsettling about a government mandating ISPs block/sniff/track
your internet traffic on behalf of the film industry.

If only the government was equally motivated to remedy injustices incurred by
those who aren't already filthy rich.

~~~
gonzo41
Don't worry this isn't a concerted effort to actually block things. Its a
pretty weak effort to go through the motions.

If your tuned into this debate at a federal level there are a vocal bunch of
senators bemoaning the Australia tax that our geography puts on us. These guys
put out info on how to use vpns and avoid geoblocking and such for the masses.

Best in show example: Adobe software and Game of thrones.

Australians want to work, trade and play in the free first world. And until we
get that we'll steal everything that isn't nailed down.

~~~
nickonline
A bunch of convicts the lot of us.

~~~
vacri
For the record, we stopped being a penal colony about 15 years before the US
stopped being a slave-using nation...

~~~
pbhjpbhj
So, not yet then ... ah, you meant a _legal_ slave using nation ...

~~~
wil421
Article is about Australia yet people still have to take jabs at the US.

I'm not really sure what you mean anyway.

~~~
redblacktree
Probably talking about things like this:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/prison-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/prison-
labor-in-america/406177/)

------
adentranter
As an Aussie I find this pretty funny. Since they passed the law to make ISPs
store your data ( which was a warning shot to piraters from my POV ) not many
people's behaviours changed. Ie people still pirated. The difference between
simply logging traffic and blocking certain sites means instead of being able
to watch what I do, I'll be sign up to a VPN and they won't see any of my
traffic. If anything blocking these sites is great as it will force lazy
people to use VPNs.

Good work to these guys making it easier to get started.

~~~
mmjaa
As an Aussie, I find your lack of distrust over this issue, disturbing. We
Australians have a long history of letting government get away with heinous
actions; as long as the "she'll be right mate" meme still holds our brains
under the tap, we'll never get the right kind of mad required to break the
chains of the colony. Honestly, this isn't something to laugh about.

~~~
lsh
agreed - there is a kind of socially enforced apathy here as well as a
separation of 'us' and 'them' when it comes to politicians and government - we
let them get away with murder and never hold them accountable because raising
a ruckus and making a big deal out of a thorny problem that requires a nuanced
solution is seen as a sort of intellectualism. and your average Australian
fucking hates an upstart know-it-all wanker.

------
kristianp
Wow, I didn't realise this had started. If I go to
[http://thepiratebay.se](http://thepiratebay.se) I get this message:

Copyright Notice ACCESS TO THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN DISABLED BECAUSE THE FEDERAL
COURT OF AUSTRALIA HAS DETERMINED THAT IT INFRINGES OR FACILITATES THE
INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT.

Please access the content you are seeking via licensed sites –
www.digitalcontentguide.com.au provides information about many sources of
licensed content.

~~~
skissane
I think it only affects certain ISPs. I am with SkyMesh and thepiratebay.se
resolves fine.

~~~
viraptor
Escapenet (small provider) works fine as well.

------
coffeecheque
For those that are interested, the blocks were ordered in early December by
Australia's Federal Court.

The court was given the powers when the Australian Copyright Act was amended
in 2015.

The case was heard over several days, and while it was inevitable that it
would order the sites blocked (there was no opposition to the blocking
application, as such) - the copyright holders didn't get everything they
wanted.

They wanted an injunction that they could effectively add to or amend over
time (such as when mirror sites pop up), but the Federal Court didn't go that
far. The blocking orders require a certain level of oversight.

It seems that new domains will require either a new case, or another affidavit
to be filed. We're yet to see what the process will be.

Also there's a multi year timer on the domains that are blocked. Rights
holders will need to file an application to keep the blocks in place.

Many people have discovered the blocks aren't really that effective. It seems
for many ISPs a simple DNS change will get around it. The court didn't order a
specific technical means to achieve the blocks, leaving it up to ISPs to
choose. They've obviously chosen methods which aren't all that effective.

~~~
predakanga
Additionally, the copyright holders were ordered to pay costs incurred by the
ISPs in implementing the block.

I think the case was a good balance between upholding the law and making it
clear that it wouldn't be a system over which the copyright holders have total
control.

------
joaodlf
This is a world wide issue in the free world at this point, but Australia is
stuck in the 90's when it comes to the internet.

We have some business there and find everything about Australia ridiculous:
ISP monopoly; hosting costs; licensing and internet related law... We ended up
hosting in Singapore to serve our Australia needs.

AU needs a major revamp on everything internet.

~~~
mmjaa
I'm Australian, and I decided 3 decades ago to not live there any more,
because of what I saw was happening with the Internet and the way the country
was crippling itself in comparison with the rest of the world. No amount of
cheap plastic shit from China can keep me interested in a country so self-
absorbed, and at the same time so utterly ignorant of the clear repression
holding the nation back.

~~~
vacri
What wonderland did you move to?

~~~
mmjaa
Didn't matter, just moved. (I've lived all over the world.)

------
nikcub
I've helped a half-dozen friends and family members in the past couple of
weeks fix their net filtering. I usually do it by logging into their routers
and setting their DNS servers to OpenDNS or Google.

A few things i've noticed. Most people don't know this is something that can
be fixed. I think that will change in the same way adblocking has spread
(ublock is a well-known brand amongst my non-tech family and friends).

Second is that the DNS change will likely only be a temporary solution for
this first stage of blocks. It is only a matter of time before more
sophisticated blocks are put in place - and there are other methods mandated
by the law available after DNS filtering (including IP blocks)

I've also noticed an irony in this situation. The Australian government passed
legislation for the copyright protection internet filtering at around the same
time they passed their ISP level metadata retention laws.

The irony is that because of the copyright blocks Australians are seeking and
learning about solutions such as Tor and VPN's, which make the second set of
metadata retention laws less effective.

One of the positive side effects of the laws is that it doesn't address the
demand for content (Australians are well known pirates) and users will seek
out workarounds which will have the effect of increasing awareness of privacy
issues and technical workarounds.

I tend to agree with Ed Snowden when he says that solutions to privacy are in
encryption and technology - not in politics. Unfortunately governments are
going to do what governments do - either in the open, or in secret.

------
nness
At this point in time, ISP's are just doing DNS redirection. You can get
around the restrictions by setting your browser's or router's DNS to Google's
on 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

------
HappyTypist
The easiest is just changing your DNS servers to 8.8.8.8.

I wish iOS allowed you to change DNS for celluar networks.

~~~
secoif
Can someone confirm that this actually works? Seems like a pretty weak attempt
at a block if true. I think the real problem is them sniffing your traffic.

> I wish iOS allowed you to change DNS for celluar networks.

Are you torrenting from your iPhone?

~~~
blorgle
Confirm, it's just a DNS block like previous attempts by the AU Gov to block
stuff.

If you're on a Apple device you probably need to use VPN to specify an
alternate DNS and either route your traffic through that VPN as well or just
use it for DNS.

------
dwightgunning
Awesome to see this is an informative and helpful guide rather than a cash-
grab service. Well done and keep up the good work!

~~~
gszathmari
Thanks for the kind comment, this is what keeps us running

------
waterhouse23
Same deal in the UK. I wonder how long until the US goes down the same route.

I'm quite surprised that they've gone down the DNS based filtering route. I'd
expect that to change in a few years time.

I recommend investing in a VPN service. They're relatively cheap. And if you
pick the right one, the bandwidth is generally pretty good.

~~~
dwightgunning
At some point all the interesting/useful countries to exit the VPN will be
censored. Then it's game over.

~~~
toyg
No - then it's a business opportunity for smaller countries, with "looser"
copyright rules and enforcement, to build a world-class VPN industry. The
Switzerland of VPNs is a historical inevitability: even the rich and powerful
need it.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
And then we'll get countries being strong armed by "Western Democracies" to
ensure top-flight talent and media execs still get paid 200x what the poor
schmucks doing the actual work get paid.

------
firmgently
It's been like this in the UK for ages, now people have to google 'pirate
proxy' instead, it's at least 3 extra clicks - when will this horror end...

~~~
toyg
Well, from this year you also need a VPN, because all your traffic is logged.
I'm looking forward to Comrade "Shared Society" May to force a proper Great
Firewall any day now.

~~~
iamben
The porn blocking is the first step towards that. First they came for the
porn...

~~~
subliminalpanda
Seeing these block pages come up in Australia, a free country, is awfully
troubling. I shudder everytime I had to see this:
[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3G10OAwNPgw/VD-
Kzl_coHI/AAAAAAAAA...](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3G10OAwNPgw/VD-
Kzl_coHI/AAAAAAAAAkQ/CBlC7mzckKI/s1600/Block%2Bsite%2Bmanagement.PNG)

------
acd
I think that government censorshop is bad for free speech.

If you have two dns services one normal and one with blacklisted ip, then you
can loop over the domain names in both dns services compare the result and
find the blacklist. Easier for reverse dns loopups, but not impossible if you
have a list of forward dns names.

------
rodgerd
This is what it looks like when your government is beholden to Rupert Murdoch.

------
aussieguy123
My ISP (TPG) is using DNS and IP blocking, had to use a VPN to get around the
block. The site mentions DNS as a way to unblock, this doesnt work anymore

------
RangerScience
So, what are numbers I can call to leave messages of international support?

------
madshiva
this is really a bad news. Yes ok tpb can be used to download pirated content
but there's also some content that are not pirated content on the site too.
Nobody should be allowed to shutdown site or flag as illegal without true
charge. It sad where in 2017 we still live and lose time with people that
don't wont go forward and do 5 step back. What next? blocking bitcoin because
this ruin the bank economy?

~~~
exodust
Doesn't matter that much. This move was to deter the mainstream downloaders
who have TPB saved as a bookmark and don't know how, or can't be bothered to
learn how to access it other ways.

Blocking the "click to download this new release movie" users probably did
prevent a few downloads.

------
akjainaj
Why do they like to call it "censorship" when they just mean "piracy
websites"? It's not like they're keeping you from publishing your thoughts
about the government and the establishment, you just want to download series
for free.

I don't mean to say you shouldn't be able to download your favourite series
for free, but please don't use words such as "censorship" that make it look
like the gov is threatening to send you to a gulag if you say the prime
minister likes golden showers.

~~~
nickonline
Do you understand censorship? This clearly fits within censorship as it's
considered politically unacceptable.

censorship, noun: the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films,
news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat
to security.

~~~
akjainaj
This is not about the government "suppresing part of a film that is considered
obscene" or "removing news articles that are politically unacceptable".

This is about you wanting to download movies or series without paying money to
the people who made them. Movies or series that are completely legal to watch
and sell in Australia, as long as you pay the people who worked to make them.

Too many people masquerade their freeloading as political activism to feel
superior. Sticking it to the man, eh?

And once again I respect the right to download or upload whatever you want,
but making it look like you're fighting the big brother censorship when you
just want to watch game of thrones, a show that is completely legal to watch
in Australia, without paying for it is... childish

~~~
apk17
> This is not about the government ... "removing news articles that are
> politically unacceptable".

That's actually part of the problem. The government should close down illegal
establishments, and not just be blocking access to them.

The other part of the problem: Once the gov can tell the ISPs what to block
(a) the block list must be secret and (b) the process can be very easily
abused, with 'overblocking' being the standard excuse.

~~~
akjainaj
Your government can't close down illegal websites in other countries, that's
why they're blocking them.

~~~
exodust
There are no "illegal websites", only some illegal activity on legal websites.
Just like there's some illegal activity on legal roadways, but we don't block
the roads do we?

~~~
akjainaj
Roads are used for a legal purpose by >99% of their users, and even though you
could upload Creative Commons content to The Pirate Bay, most of it is
illegally shared software/entertainment.

The same they would not block Telegram nation-wide just because some users are
using it to upload movies to public gruops (yes, it happens) because most of
the users just use it to talk to their friends.

~~~
exodust
> _" most of it is illegally shared software/entertainment"_

I prefer to think of it as "conveniently shared". Here in Australia we have a
problem with lack of convenience around legal avenues of digital
entertainment, so there's not exactly an equivalent legal alternative to
something as easy as downloading. It's a fragmented mess of services if you
choose to play by the rules.

Regional restrictions, lock-in contracts, and free-to-air "rights" to
particular programs exclusively means every platform plays a tug-of-war with
viewers, trying to get their subscription dollar or eyeballs on advertising.

People will find the path of least resistance when the commercial interests
around them close in with deals and promotions and hype we can't possible keep
up with or remain in tune with. So we turn to the internet.

Not everyone is "illegal" all the time. I buy blu-rays of shows I really liked
that I previously downloaded. Exposure to content otherwise never discovered
has a value we are not seeing factored in to these arguments.

------
jazoom
VPN is another option.

------
heldrida
The ones who need help are the Aboriginal people. Stop with the aboriginal
genocide!

~~~
akjainaj
Aboriginal genocide? In Australia? Is this even a thing?

~~~
technion
It wasn't far off.

~~~
akjainaj
I am asking because the Wikipedia article about "List of massacres of
Indigenous Australians" claims that hasn't happened in about a century.

~~~
_coldfire
It's a common trope of the far left in Australia.

People aren't actually being killed.

