Sweden: ISPs Cannot Be Forced to Block Pirate Bay

THE LOCAL SE reports that "In a landmark decision, a Swedish court on Friday ruled that the country's internet service providers cannot be forced to block controversial Swedish file-sharing site Pirate Bay. After considering the case for almost a month, the District Court of Stockholm ruled that copyright holders could not make Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget block Pirate Bay"
 
Related post - "How will Pirate Bay Avoid Blocking?" - here.

"The court found that Bredbandsbolaget's operations do not amount to participation in the copyright infringement offences carried out by some of its 'pirate' subscribers.

The action was brought by Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry, who teamed up in a lawsuit last year designed to force Bredbandsbolaget to block the site. They claimed that, unless it blocks Pirate Bay, Bredbandsbolaget should be held responsible for the copyright infringements of its customers". 

See "Swedish court: 'We cannot ban Pirate Bay'" - here.

FCC: "No blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization"

It seems now that next month's Net Neutrality FCC rules will not allow any traffic management intervention (except, most probably the traditional "reasonable network management" for congestion control).

Alina Selyukh and Malathi Nayak report to Reuters that "Comments by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas appeared to show he leaned toward regulating Internet service providers (ISPs) more strictly under Title II of the U.S. communications law, as Obama has suggested .. "We're going to propose rules that say that no blocking (is allowed), no throttling, no paid prioritization," Wheeler said [skip to 18:40' in the video below].

He said companies' behavior should be measured against a yardstick of whether it is "just and reasonable," referring to a standard often applied to public utility companies to make sure they do not hurt consumers or competition". 

See "FCC chief seen siding with Obama on net neutrality" - here.

Netflix to Geo-block VPN Users

 
ERNESTO reports to TorrentFreak that "Netflix is starting to block subscribers who access its service using VPN services and other tools that bypass geolocation restrictions. The changes, which may also affect legitimate users, have been requested by the movie studios who want full control over what people can see in their respective countries 

.. Over the past weeks Netflix has started to take action against people who use certain circumvention tools. The Android application started to force Google DNS which now makes it harder to use DNS based location unblockers, and several VPN IP-ranges were targeted as well .. Thus far the actions are limited in scope, so not all VPN users may experience problems just yet. However, TorGuard is one of the VPN providers which noticed a surge in access problems by its users, starting mid-December.

..Netflix is not the only streaming service that’s targeting VPN and proxy users. A few months ago Hulu implemented similar restrictions. This made the site unusable for location “pirates,” but also U.S. based paying customers who used a VPN for privacy reasons".

See "Netflix cracks down on VPN and proxy pirates" - here.

UK: How do ISPs Implement Network Based Parental Control Service?

Ofcom has "published a report for Government outlining measures the UK's largest internet service providers have put in place to help parents protect children from harmful content online. This follows an agreement between the Government and BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, the four largest fixed line internet service providers (ISPs), announced in July 2013 [see "UK to Enforce Opt Out Network Based Web Filtering on All ISPs" - here]. Each ISP committed to offer new customers 'family-friendly network-level filtering' by the end of December 2013 [see "UK ISPs for Safer Internet" - here]" 

"The report finds that the four ISPs now have a network level family friendly filtering service .. There are a number of filtering categories common to all four ISPs. Suicide and self-harm, pornography, file sharing, crime, drugs, violence and hate are covered by each provider's classification systems .. All of the ISPs offer some additional services alongside the network family-friendly filters, some including internet security services aimed at protecting the subscriber from issues like viruses or malware. All offer device level filtering or security software for installation on individual computers

All of the ISPs have commissioned third parties to perform the categorisation of 

internet content and services: 

• BT and Virgin employ Nominum
• Sky uses Symantec 
• TalkTalk uses Huawei [see "Huawei's SIG: Policy Enforcement and URL Filtering" - here], although Symantec was also initially involved.

The filtering solutions rely on two basic technologies:

• Filtering by Uniform Resource Locator (URL) blocking: the filtering of sites or services based on their web address – either addresses covering whole websites (http://www.example.com) or individual sections or pages on those sites (http://www.example.com/adultpictures). This involves the ISP checking some or all of the URLs which an opted-in subscriber requests against the list of sites or pages to be blocked. If there is a match, the subscriber request is not fulfilled – typically a page with the message “this site is blocked because it is classified as…” may be delivered instead.

• Filtering by Domain Name System (DNS) alteration: the DNS translates domain names (“www.example.com” into IP addresses “192.0.32.10”), to allow a subscriber’s content request to be correctly directed – this is the first stage in requesting a website or service. When used for filtering, the ISP’s DNS server will not provide the IP address for domains on the list; it may instead direct the subscriber request to an information page with “this site is blocked because it is classified as…”.

Each of Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk has adopted a slightly different version of URL blocking; Sky’s filtering system is exclusively based on its DNS servers. The use of URL blocking allows a more granular classification of online content and services: Sky’s system will always block whole domains, while BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk can target specific parts of a domain.

See "Ofcom publishes report on internet safety measures" - here.

FCC: New Net Neutrality? Just be "Commercially Reasonable"

  

After several days of conflicting new of the future of Net Neutrality in the US, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler [pictured] decided to "Set the Record Straight", in a post to the FCC official blog. the bottom line - "It is my intention to conclude this proceeding and have enforceable rules by the end of the year".

And the rules are:

1. That all ISPs must transparently disclose to their subscribers and users all relevant information as to the policies that govern their network;
    
2. That no legal content may be blocked; and
    
3. That ISPs may not act in a commercially unreasonable manner to harm the Internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity.

Good news to the DPI and Policy management vendors! (i guess that "reasonable traffic management" will remain as well).

On the same time, the "Chairman Wheeler is encouraging the public to share their views now. He intends to have rules of the road in place before the end of the year to protect consumers and entrepreneurs. He will be listening, and your comments will help inform the final rules" (see "FCC Establishes New Inbox for Open Internet Comments" - here and "Comments to the New FCC Net Neutrality" - here)

See "Setting the Record Straight on the FCC’s Open Internet Rules" - here.

EU: One Step Away from A Strong Net Neutrality Law

The EU voted for a new Net Neutrality law (for fixed and mobile services), that should end traffic blocking (here) or discrimination. However, there are some exceptions, including the ability to provide high-quality services. This is not final yet, and the law has to be approved by the leaders of the EU countries.

"Internet access providers would be barred from blocking or slowing down selected services for economic or other reasons by the latest draft EU “telecoms package” legislation voted by Parliament on Thursday .. MEPs want clear rules to prevent internet access providers from promoting some services at the expense of others".

See also:

• EU: Traffic Management, Pay for QoS - are all fine! - here
• EU Tells Telcos to Wake-up! - here.

"Internet access providers would still be able to offer specialized services of higher quality, such as video on demand and business-critical data-intensive “cloud” (data storage) applications, so long as these services are not supplied to "the detriment of the availability or quality of internet access services" offered to other companies or service suppliers

MEPs shortened the European Commission's list of “exceptional” cases in which internet access providers could still be entitled to block or slow down the internet. MEPs say these practices should be permitted only to enforce a court order, preserve network security or prevent temporary network congestion. If such "traffic management measures" are used, they must be "transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate" and "not be maintained longer than necessary", they add.

MEPs underline that internet access should be provided in accordance with the principle of "net neutrality", which means that all internet traffic is treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, independently of its sender, recipient, type, content, device, service or application.
See "Ensure open access for internet service suppliers and ban roaming fees, say MEPs" - here.

FCC: The Next Gen Net Neutrality

The FCC's had to do something after losing the Net Neutrality case to Verizon and the immediate effects it had (see related posts below).

Chairman Tom Wheeler [pictured], presented a new set of Net Neutrality rules:

"In its Verizon v. FCC decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuitinvited the Commission to act to preserve a free and open Internet. I intend to accept that invitation by proposing rules that will meet the court’s test for preventing improper blocking of and discrimination among Internet traffic, ensuring genuine transparency in how Internet Service Providers manage traffic, and enhancing competition. Preserving the Internet as an open platform for innovation and expression while providing certainty and predictability in the marketplace is an important responsibility of this agency". 

Related posts:

• Netflix: "Unfortunately, Verizon successfully challenged the U.S. net neutrality rules"  - here
• The Post-Net Neutrality Era - Does Verizon Shape Netflix and Amazon?  - here
• Netflix Reports Slower Speeds for Verizon - here

See "Statement by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on the FCC's Open Internet Rules" - here.

EU Courts can Order ISPs to Block Copyright Infringement Sites

The EU's Advocate General’s Opinion says that ".. Member States are to ensure that copyright holders or holders of related rights are able to apply for an injunction against intermediaries whose services are used by a third party to infringe their rights .. It is already established that internet providers can in principle be regarded as intermediaries and therefore as persons against which such injunctions, which are aimed at bringing to an end infringements already committed and at preventing further infringements, can be granted. In practice, the operators of illegal websites and the internet providers which make them available online are frequently based outside Europe or conceal their identity, making it difficult to pursue them before the courts".

"In his Opinion today, Advocate General Pedro Cruz Villalón [pictured] takes the view that the internet provider of the user of a website which infringes copyright is also to be regarded as an intermediary whose services are used by a third party – that is the operator of the website - to infringe copyright and therefore also as a person against whom an injunction can be granted. That is apparent from the wording, context, spirit and purpose of the provision of EU law".

See also "There is always another Way to Download" - here.

See "According to Advocate General Cruz Villalón an internet provider can be required to block access by its customers to a website which infringes copyright" - here.

UK to Enforce Opt Out Network Based Web Filtering on All ISPs

More than 2 years ago the UK Government said it wants an Opt Out Parental Control (here). Now it decided to go for it - potentially creating some opportunities to DPI vendors (see related posts about Allot, Procera and Sandvine success for network-based filtering)

David Cameron, the UK Prime Minster [pictured] said he is about to "cracking down on online pornography and making the internet safer for children"

"Inside the home, on the private family network, it is a more complicated issue. There has been a big debate about whether internet filters should be set to a default ‘on’ position in other words, with adult content filters applied by default – or not .. Those who wanted default ‘on’ said – it’s a no-brainer just have the filters set to ‘on’ - then adults can turn them off if they want to and that way we can protect all children, whether their parents are engaged in internet safety or not ..  But others said default ‘on’ filters could create a dangerous sense of complacency ..  I say: we need both we need good filters that are pre-selected to be on unless an adult turns them off and we need parents aware and engaged in the setting of those filters".

Mr. Cameron analyzes the new family-friendly filter by access method:

• "..So on mobile phones, it is great to report that all of the operators have now agreed to put adult content filters onto phones automatically.

• On public wi-fi – of which more than 90 per cent is provided by six companies – O2, Virgin Media, Sky, Nomad, BT and Arqiva - I’m pleased to say we have now reached an agreement with all of them that family-friendly filters are to be applied across the public wi-fi network wherever children are likely to be present. 

• I appointed Claire Perry to take charge of this for the very simple reason that she is passionate about this issue and determined to get things done.She has worked with the big 4 internet service providers TalkTalk, Virgin, Sky and BT  [see the previous "self-regulation" act - "UK: Top 4 ISPs Committed for Opt-In Parental Control" - here], who together supply internet connections to almost 9 out of 10 homes and today, after months of negotiation, we have agreed home network filters that are the best of both worlds. By the end of this year, when someone sets up a new broadband account the settings to install family friendly filters will be automatically selected"

See "The internet and pornography: Prime Minister calls for action" - here.

[Israel]: More Illegal Download Sites are Blocked (or not)

 

ZIRA's Notification on blocked sites

The Israeli press reports (Calcalist, here - Hebrew) reports that local ISPs are now blocking two more pirate video streaming downloading sites - nako.me and gozlan.me. 

 

The two are from few remaining illegal download sites, following the shutdown of other sites during the recent months. 

ISP are now blocking these sites based on DNS names, after an initial block by IP addresses failed. The court order issued to the request of ZIRA (Hebrew acronym for "Internet Copyrights"), a coalition of major local media and broadcasting organization.
 
Nevertheless, although my ISP is mentioned in the story as blocking the two sites, I can access both sites (which have new names now - Deniro and loka - the latter even ask the visitors to sign a petition against ZIRA).

ARCEP Sees Decrease in Use of TM in Mobile; Plans to Monitor QoS on Fixed Networks

   

ARCEP, the French regulator, published an update on its work on Net Neutrality for France. Following are several  quotes from its press release on the new report:

"Through the Law of 22 March 2011, Parliament has asked ARCEP to provide an update on the status of net neutrality. ARCEP submitted today its report to Parliament and the Government on this issue.

In September 2010, ARCEP published 10 proposals [here] that aimed at defining a sustainable, neutral and high-quality equilibrium for the functioning of the Internet, combined with tools to ensure this equilibrium is maintained and to guarantee it if needed ..  However, competition and transparency alone are not always enough Therefore ARCEP has engaged further efforts to ensure the ecosystem runs smoothly and stakeholders comply with the principles laid out in 2010.

• .. to track the quality of Internet access services, ARCEP will adopt a decision before the end of this year that specifies the quality of service indicators for fixed networks, which will be measured and made public, in complement of those already measured for mobile networks   

• ..  ARCEP has undertaken an inventory of traffic management practices implemented by operators - e.g. throttling, blocking or priority queues.-. Thanks in particular to competition, ARCEP has noticed a decrease in the use of these practices especially on mobile networks. Certain practices are nevertheless contrary to the framework set in 2010 which consists of five assessment criteria. ARCEP is therefore calling, among others, for the steady elimination of service blocking (VoIP, P2P) on mobile networks. If the market fails to make sufficient progress on its own, the current legislation gives the Authority the powers needed to intervene.

Source: ARCEP Report, September 2012

• .. the interconnection business model, namely the relationships between Internet players, is evolving gradually and can give rise to conflicts: it needs to be better understood. In light of its analysis of the current state of the market, ARCEP considers that there is no need to strengthen the regulatory framework at this stage. The regular collection of information introduced by the Authority's decision of 29 March 2012 has produced its first results this summer 2012 and allows ARCEP to keep track of these trends, to analyse them and take action accordingly.
      [See related news about a recent decision given in the case of Orange-Cogent dispute over their peering agreement - "France Télécom may ask to be remunerated for opening additional capacity but it must clarify the commercial and billing relationship between its Internet access and Internet transit businesses" - here; Similar to the Comcast-Level3 case from two years ago (here). 

 ... It is now for Parliament and the Government to determine the follow-up to be given to this report.

See "Net Neutrality" - here.

There is always another Way to Download

     

Peter Sunde, co-founder,

Pirate Bay

Mark Jackson report to ISPreview that "One of the country’s largest broadband ISPs has revealed that the recent censorship of The Pirate Bay website has had only a short-lived impact upon overall P2P file sharing traffic, with data volumes dipping 11% immediately after the ban before returning “pretty much back to where they were before“.

See "UK ISPs Ordered to Block Pirate Bay" (here) for background on the censorship, as well as what the UK regulator, Ofcom thinks of web blocking ("Ofcom: "All site blocking techniques can be circumvented" - [The Leaked Document]"- here).

It is not clear if users accessed Pirate Bay or other site/s to reach copyrighted material, or used P2P for other file transfers.

Mark explain that "In fairness it should be said that ISPs generally only keep a very vague record of overall network activity, which cannot identify precisely what type of files are being transferred over P2P networks (legal, unlawful or illegal content etc.). As a result it’s difficult to know what the real impact has been, although users of such content tend to switch over to a different site or simply work their way around the block itself. In any case overall P2P traffic, which was the primary focus of The Pirate Bay, appears not to have suffered".

See "Big UK ISP Claims the The Pirate Bay Block Had Little Impact on P2P Traffic" - here.

BEREC: "traffic management and differentiation practices are capable of being used for questionable purposes"

     

The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) published ".. the results of an investigation into traffic management and other practices resulting in restrictions to the open Internet in Europe". (for background see "The EU Takes its time with Net Neutrality: It is Important, but Let's Monitor and Study First" - here and "BEREC: Blocking/throttling P2P and VoIP with DPI is Frequently Done in Europe" - here).

"The total number of operators considered within the scope of the exercise is 381 - 266 fixed and 115 mobile operators .. The customer base of the respondent operators covers a total of about 140 million fixed broadband subscribers and 200 million mobile active Internet subscribers".

The traffic restrictions reported by the operators are divided into 4 categories:

1. P2P/VoIP and Other contents/applications (e.g. file sharing, FTP, etc.)
    
2. Measures reported by operators as allowing a more efficient protection and management of networks - Congestion management and Security and integrity 
    
3. Measures put in place by operators in order to implement specific business models, either concerning the bundling of specialized services with Internet access, or with respect to data volume pricing - Specialised services in fixed networks and Data caps
    
4. Restriction that is not at the operators’ initiative, but is required by public authorities (measures upon legal order)

BEREC concludes:

• Competition is expected to discipline operators, and ensure the best offers for consumers, but this critically relies on effective transparency and the ability of endusers to easily switch service providers.
    
• Both NRAs and end users should be able to monitor the performance of the Internet access service, and of the applications used via that Internet access service.
   
• Where competition and transparency are inadequate or insufficient to address concerns, existing regulatory tools (including quality of service requirements) should enable NRAs to address net neutrality related concerns for the time being (though not all of these tools have been fully tested yet). NRAs are ready to act without hesitation  if necessary.

See the press release "BEREC publishes net neutrality findings and new guidance for consultation"- here and report - here.

ARCEP Calls for the "elimination of service blocking (VoIP, P2P) on mobile networks"

   

ARCEP, the French regulator, announced that it has submitted "the draft version of its report to Parliament and the Government on Net neutrality to public consultation" (here, French).
 

In September 2010, ARCEP published "10 propositions for Network Neutrality" (here) and the public consultation contributions it received by then (here). "The projects that began, and about which Parliament has queried ARCEP, concern transparency, quality of service, interconnection and traffic management .. ARCEP and the State departments responsible for telecommunications and consumer affairs co-host a working group on this issue that is populated by the sector’s stakeholders. Its conclusions will be made public in autumn 2012".

  

"However, competition and transparency alone are not enough, and need to be completed by other actions in the arena of quality of service, interconnection and traffic management:

• .. to track the quality of internet access services and avoid the creation of an internet that operates “at several speeds,” ARCEP will adopt a decision in summer 2012 – which comes to complement the existing scheme on mobile networks – and which specifies QoS indicators for wireline networks which will be measured and made public
   
• ARCEP has taken an inventory of traffic management practices – i.e. the differentiated treatment of internet traffic streams, such as throttling, blocking or priority queues – being employed by operators today. Under certain circumstances, these practices could hinder the principle of Net neutrality .. ARCEP is therefore calling for the steady elimination of service blocking (VoIP, P2P) on mobile networks. If the market fails to make sufficient progress on its own, the Law gives ARCEP the powers needed to enforce its recommendations.
   

See "ARCEP submits draft version of its report to Parliament and the Government on Net neutrality to public consultation" - here.

UK ISPs Ordered to Block Pirate Bay

The BBC reports that "File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled. The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly pirated free music and video. Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site".

Few months ago a similar order was issued in the matter of Newzbin2 (see "UK Court Orders BT to Block Newzbin2 in 14 Days, Using DPI" - here).

Like always, I should mention that the UK regulator, Ofcom, believes that "All site blocking techniques can be circumvented" (here).

See "The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules" - here.

Indian ISPs need to Block Sites - Will they Use DPI?

 
Courts in several counties issued recently orders to ISPs to block access to certain sites to prevent copyright infringement (UK, Belgium, Finland as well as the SOPA legislation in the US).

Jayesh Limaye (pictured) reports to techtree that ".. the Calcutta High Court has issued a diktat to all the ISPs in India to block 104 domains who have been found to distribute music illegally. In a verdict that will cause the Indian Music Industry (IMI) to rejoice, the court has ordered a ban on websites such as BollywoodMP4.com andFreeIndiSongs.com. The ISPs have been given 36 hours to comply, by either blocking domain \ IP addresses or by using Deep Packet Inspection to ban the offending URLs".

A list of ISPs in India is available here.

See "Indian ISPs Told To Block Music Sharing Sites" - here.

Does Orego [Lebanon] Block SkypeOut to all ISPs?

           

Two months ago Lebanon's Acting Chairman and CEO of  Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Dr. Imad Hoballah, said in an interview that ".. Broadband service providers and operators are at risk of becoming dumb–pipe providers .. . The first option [to monetize OTT services] is to avoid competition with those [OTT] providers by delivering an extra layer of value that only they can provide" (see "Lebanon's Regulator Presents Business Models for OTT Monetization" - here). 

It seems that the reality is different, and the DPI equipment mentioned by the regulator as a tool to provide a an "extra layer of value" is used differently:

An Internet user in Lebanon complains at Lebgeeks that "For the past month, I have no been able to make any successful calls. The phone rings on the other side, when the call connects none of the parties hear anything. After a certain number of seconds, the call is automatically dropped. I have reproduced this on TerraNet, IDM and Alfa 3G [here]. Can anyone confirm this? Note: I am talking about the situation where you are calling from your PC to a landline or mobile phone. This does not affect PC-to-PC calling, which is working fine".

Few hours later, the user reports that "Update: I just talked to Nuclearcat (who works at VISP), it seems that Ogero has indeed blocked SkypeOut. This means all (legal) ISPs are affected. It seems that deep packet inspection is being used. Any further technical info about the filtering would be appreciated".

See "Skype (PC-to-Phone) being filtered?" - here.

OGERO (Organisme de Gestion et d'Exploitation de l'ex Radio Orient) was established in 1972 to manage and operate the telegraph and submarine telecommunications of Radio Orient (the early 1900's ). It is 100% owned by the government and acts under the supervision of the Minister of Telecommunication.

Orego also charges customers by usage levels - "The Customer can download 24h/24 but he will be paying extra charges when his upload/download exceeds certain thresholds. These thresholds are as follows depending on the subscription plan: 
4 GB for the 1 Mbps connection.
10 GB for the 1 Mbps connection.
20 GB for the 2 Mbps connection.
25 GB for the 4 Mbps connection.
30 GB for the 6 to 8 Mbps connection. 
40 GB for the HDSL 2 Mbps connection" (here)

Web Blocking - is it Working?

     
Blocking web sites has been an issue for long time now. While carriers may offer URL filtering services, sometimes as a value-add service (for security or inappropriate sites for minors), some countries demand ISPs to block sites which present illegal material such as child abuse, or more recently, links to copyright protected material (US "SOPA" - here).

While many doubt the ability of ISP to block URLs (see "Ofcom: "All site blocking techniques can be circumvented" - here), some recent data (see below) shows that despite that, millions of web requests are blocked every year in some countries.

Nevertheless, in a recent case in Denmark, 8,000 sites were mistakenly blocked by a police officer who misplaced a list of sites (see "Police Censor Google, Facebook and 8,000 Other Sites by Accident" - here). See also a case in Argentina - here.

thejournal.ie reports on a proposal made to the Irish Senate "for a system to block internet users from accessing child pornography .. the motion [see below], which is being proposed by Independent Senator Jillian van Turnhout (pictured) and other Taoiseach’s nominees, could help cut the number of people in Ireland viewing images of child abuse .. The measures would block internet users in Ireland from accessing child abuse material hosted on servers internationally. Similar systems are in place in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Australia [here, here] and New Zealand".

The article provides some information on the activity of such systems in other countries: "Countries with similar systems had seen thousands of requests blocked, [Internet safety advisor] Pat McKenna added. “Norway has a population similar to ours. They block 10,000-12,000 requests a day .. In the UK, BT alone blocks 35,000-40,000 requests a day. That’s 58 million requests a year, just from one ISP".

See "Child pornography blocking system to be debated by Seanad" - here.

DNS Blocking to be Removed from the SOPA Proposal

 
US Congressman and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (pictured) announced a change to the SOPA ( Stop Online Piracy Act, here) proposal:

"After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision. We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers"

The Internet Society said that while they agree with the need to "combat illegal online activities such as child pornography, infringement of intellectual property rights and cybercriminal activities", they find that "policies and regulations that require the interruption of the DNS infrastructure, whether by filtering results or through domain name seizure have serious deficiencies. These techniques do not solve the problem, interfere with cross-border data flows and services, and undermine the Internet as a single, unified, global communications network" (here).

Like always, I will quote Ofcom "All site blocking techniques can be circumvented". This refers to 4 techniques for site blocking: by IP address, DNS response, by URL response alteration or by using Shallow or Deep Packet Inspection (or hybrids of the above). 

See "Smith to Remove DNS Blocking from SOPA" - here.

Elisa [Finland] Blocks Domains and IP Addresses of Pirate Bay

   

Elisa announced that " .. On 26 October 2011, the District Court of Helsinki ordered Elisa Corporation, under the penalty of a fine, to stop making copyright-infringing material publicly available through Pirate Bay. The court decision says that Elisa must remove the Pirate Bay service's domain names from Elisa's name servers and to block traffic to the IP addresses that the service uses .. Elisa will take the ordered action as of 9 January 2012 to Elisa and Saunalahti subscriptions. The blocking will not have an impact on other network traffic of Elisa's and Saunalahti customers"

Elisa's press release lists the blocked domains (e.g. thepiratebay.org, www.thepiratebay.org, depiraatbaai.be, www.depiraatbaai.be, piratebay.am, www.piratebay.am, piratebay.net, www.piratebay.net) and blocked IP addresses - 194.71.107.15, 194.71.107.18, 194.71.107.19.

See "Temporary blocking of Pirate Bay introduced in Elisa's network 9 January 2012" - here. 

Recently, a UK court issued a similar order to BT (here), and a bill ("SOPA") is proposed in the US for the same purpose (here). Ofcom, the UK regulator, said few months ago that "All site blocking techniques can be circumvented" - here.

At the end of Q3, 2011 Elisa had 4.1M mobile and 380K fixed broadband subscribers.

See also "Lightreading: Elisa is in RFP process for DPI/Policy Management" - here.