Portugal Blocks Popular Torrent and Streaming Sites

Rather than taking site operators to court, copyright holders increasingly demand that Internet providers should block access to ‘pirate’ domains instead.

As a result, courts all around the world have ordered ISPs to block subscriber access to various pirate sites. But there are other ways.

In Portugal a voluntary process has recently been formalized through an agreement between several parties including the Ministry of Culture and the Association of Telecommunication Operators.

Earlier this year local Internet Providers were already ordered to block access to The Pirate Bay and under the new agreement it would be possible to add new pirate sites without a court intervention.

This weekend the new site blocking mechanism was used for the first time, with ISPs adding 51 new domain names connected to copyright-infringing sites.

The list (posted in full below) includes popular torrent sites including as KickassTorrents (Kat.cr), ExtraTorrent, Isohunt, YTS and RARBG, as well as streaming portals and linking sites such as Dayt.se, Watchseries and Primewire.

In addition to several new targets, Pirate Bay’s alternative domain name thepiratebay.la and unofficial proxy piratebay.to were also added. Users who try to access any of the domain names now get a notice informing them that the site has been blocked.

“The site you try to access is blocked in compliance with a notification from the Regulatory Authority,” the translated message reads.

The 51 domain names are just the start, as the various parties previously announced that hundreds of sites will eventually be blocked. Under the agreement copyright holders can file two complaints each month, each of which can target up to 50 websites.

All sites are added following complaints from copyright holders. The reported sites are investigated by local anti-piracy group MAPINET and will end up on the blocklist if there’s enough evidence of systematic infringing activity.

—-

The full list of blocked domain names, as reported by Exame Informatica, is as follows.

– http://1337x.to
– http://btrev.net/
– http://ift.tt/1iTldnU
– http://dayt.se/
– http://extratorrent.cc
– http://ift.tt/1iM9ac5
– http://gigatuga.com/
– http://lusoshare.com/
– http://megafilmeshd.net
– http://moov7.net
– http://osmetralhas.pt/
– http://ift.tt/1WaHzbu
– http://ift.tt/1k0wtV5
– http://poptuga.com/
– http://ptxtuga.com/
– http://ift.tt/1WaHCE2
– http://ift.tt/1k0wubi
– http://seriestvix.tv
– http://ift.tt/1WaHCE4
– http://toppt.net/
– http://ift.tt/1CXSTIl
– http://tuga.io/
– http://tugaanimado.net/
– http://tugaflix.com/
– http://tugaoxe.com/
– http://watchseries.lt
– http://ift.tt/1WaHzbv
– http://ift.tt/1k0wto1
– http://ift.tt/1aHliWd
– http://ift.tt/1k0wto2
– http://ift.tt/S3ZaSG
– http://ift.tt/1b3L5yV
– http://www.monova.org
– http://www.primewire.ag
– http://ift.tt/1k0wubn
– http://www.scnsrc.me
– http://ift.tt/1WaHCE7
– http://ift.tt/1k0wto3
– http://ift.tt/tPOWKk
– http://ift.tt/1k0wubp
– http://ift.tt/1WaHCE8
– http://ift.tt/1k0wtEi
– http://ift.tt/1WaHzbw
– https://isohunt.to
– https://kat.cr
– https://piratebay.to
– https://rarbg.to
– https://ratotv.net/
– https://thepiratebay.la
– https://yts.to
– http://toppt.tv

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.