Federal bill would force VPN providers, ISPs, and DNS services to block foreign piracy sites
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/vpn/federal-bill-would-force-vpn-providers-isps-and-dns-services-to-block-foreign-piracy-sites-yet-fuzzy-location-rules-could-trigger-heavy-handed-bansOpen linkView original on thelemmy.club
155 replies
There is a surprisingly good amount of free games and movies, it would actually save me time if they were to "ban vpns"
This leads to the government deciding which websites you can visit and cant visit down the line. This is a dystopian level of control and with surveillance already getting dystopian… Pick your dystopian technology book and decide which one we’re leading towards. Fascism policies are already on the rise in democratic worlds.
I pick mad max. In the end, it will come down to oil.
Mad max in 1984.
I think tank girl, and it will come down to clean water
Oooh, good one.
UK already doing this to try to block 4chan. You can decide if that is a good or bad thing.
Well.. bad. No government should be able to tell you what sites you're allowed to visit
I agree, many do not.
Am I the only one who read Rash?
This one?
https://blbooks.blogspot.com/2026/08/51-rash.html
Yes, I did read it in Jr high so don't expect a masterpiece but I'd say it's pretty accurate and can be read in a day.
...as opposed to the non-democratic worlds, which are already as fascist as you can get, right?
Great, more boomers who can't understand how the internet works.
This doesn't stem from a lack of understanding. It's about corporations and control.
We need to stop believing the boomer’s framing that they’re all old and dumb, and start realizing that they’d eat us if we tasted good
Given all the cute sentient animals humans gleefully consume, your words ring true.
Those cute sentient animals would eat us too if they were sapient. And we tasted good.
The difference is we pretend to be better than then, we know better and can usually do something about it.
I’m doing my part by only eating animals that are assholes
Each half of that sentence is diametrically opposed to the other.
The thing that would make us better isn’t knowing; it’s doing. It makes sense to say that someone who knows better but behaves no better is literally no better.
Rationality is sensitivity and responsiveness to reasons, and plenty of folks are unresponsive to normative facts.
At least 70% of humans are just dangerously intelligent animals. Like imagine a polar bear that can drive and trade stocks. That’s the average person.
Can't have those small-time AI startups gathering training data like the big boys do.
No, we're at the point where the people pushing these laws do understand how the Internet works, and they want to control all of it.
It’s a series of tubes.
I mean, kind of, but also absolutely not
Ironically, that guy was probably the closest any politician at the time got to understanding what the internet was.
Choose your DNS provider wisely
And ensure your VPN provider isn’t headquartered in the US (or better yet any five eyes nation) nor one of the ones owned by the Israeli Billionaire Teddy Sagi who likely also has deep ties to the Israeli and US governments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kape_Technologies
TIL expressVPN started as
JFC.
Good lists of vpn providers would be appreciated.
Proton has been good for me. CEO seems like a dick but I'm gonna be honest it's getting pretty hard to support any tech company that doesn't have a dick CEO.
Mullvad is zero log and located in Sweden, and accepts payment in crypto to reduce traceable privacy footprint (which frankly is one of the real, relevant use-cases for crypto to further legitimate privacy needs).
Yeah but one of the guys that owns it is the primary funder of that nutty far right political group.
Also take cash over mail
AirVPN has been great so far. Moved to it from Mullvad.
I've been happy with IVPN since mullvad CEO donated a bunch of money to far right parties
I had trouble with IVPN. They didn't have many countries/servers, and ended up being blocked.
Currently on ProtonVPN, and seems to be OK so far.
Proton, mullvad, air VPN, depending on threat case. NordVPN for torrenting specifically, but not as good for privacy etc.
The most important thing is to check who owns the VPN (as the previous commentor said, stay away from Kape tech) and where it's based (e.g., 14 eyes), as well as independent security audits and the company's public history with government requests.
I recently switched to windscribe.
They're a good, solid wireguard provider.
Njalla. Run by Peter Sunde.
Godamnit, I didn't realize PIA was bought out by them. Time to switch.
NextDNS is good and I just realised that it's based in The US. The alternative ones don't seem to provide the feature of granular filtering.
I use pihole+unbound right now and hoping that is unaffected
i think you have to set up DoH with unbound to make it not be in cleartext? I dunno honestly I'm a dummy, but I'm fairly sure that it's pretty tricky to get it totally secured. I guess I don't understand why you can't use ubound recursively but have its root.hints pointing as something like quad9 instead of all the actual root authoritative dns servers, theres like 13 of them and more than half are the US government.
Like this will ever work. lol. Just don’t get VPN from a company that is headquartered in the US. Problem solved. There are a million other ways to bypass this. There will ALWAYS be away, they’re just trying to make it harder for the experienced, and impossible for your average Joe.
The only way to stop it is by severing all the cables and blowing up the infrastructure. They aren't prepared to do that.
Literally. This is not a new “fight”. These corrupt, bribes-ridden fuckers have been “fighting” piracy since the inception of the internet, and they’ve always lost, and always lose.
They could also force ISPs to ban VPN IPs that don't comply with their piracy blocking rules, regardless of whether they're in the US.
This is the same party that are all for unregulated AI use and no consequences for breaking copyright to train it.
This bill's goal is to provide a standardized mechanism to filter sites then start blocking sites that state doesn't approve.
It's same as the other "think of the children" bills of the party that is protecting pedophiles.
political theater. won't happen because it's unenforceable.
if this does happen, IF, it has nothing to do with IP rights or protecting Americans. it has everything to do with censoring what the majority of common Americans read online. this is the first step towards blocking news outlets that won't regurgitate whitehouse directives.
I'm a bit surprised they've gone with piracy as an excuse - usually it's "Think of the children!" Maybe they've finally figured out that we already know that republicans are thinking of (molesting) the children so they've fallen back on "You wouldn't download a car".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dt8NrWa9fI
And blocking the IP address of the site in question, as well. That’s why so many “illegal” sites jump around IP addresses like a flea on a hot griddle. They’re trying to remain accessible whenever the ISP prevents direct access.
Because if you block the IP address, blocking DNS is superfluous and performative -- it’s just window dressing for better optics towards politicians who don’t understand tech. DNS censorship trivially bypassible by using custom DNS servers that aren’t affected by the censorship, while IP blocking hits everyone who is under that ISP regardless of their DNS settings - they need a VPN to bypass IP blocking.
all that's going to do is give them an excuse to block IPs outside the US by the block.
keep an eye on the FCC and any legislation they take against HAM or SDR. without that it would be difficult to have any comms outside the US.
No, IP blocking is widespread in most places, it’s just that “rights holder” lawsuits go after the domain name, first, both in terms of the registrar and DNS. They also force ISPs to block IP addresses, but this is more of a whack-a-mole prospect so it’s usually a second-order method.
If piracy was a problem I can find them multiple international corporations that are well know for using copyrighted content to train their LLM without paying for it or having permission from the owner of that content.
This is a special kind of irony: someone is lambasting one group for piracy while simultaneously advocating for another group to do essentially the same thing for their own benefit.
They’re not really prosecuting people for piracy, so why would they go after large corporations?
I’m not supporting the idea of pirating data for LLM training. I’m just saying: don’t be a hypocrite simply because a group of people you dislike is doing the same thing you’re doing, for the same reasons.
One group is poor individuals and the other is a billion/trillion dollar industry that's basically gloating about pirating at an industrial scale.
Going after individuals for downloading a 4Gb rip of a movie doesn't make any financial sense but it makes a lot more sense going after companies downloadinh millions of gigabytes and have more than enough money to pay damages
So it's strange to continue attacking individuals while covering your eyes at the big companies
I'm not attacking anyone, and I'm not covering my eyes to anything.
You basically just proved my point: going after every individual or corporation that pirates isn't really feasible.
I'm simply pointing out the hypocrisy in the stance itself. It doesn't matter who's doing the pirating; the underlying justification is the same. If it's acceptable for an individual to pirate something because the company no longer sells it, then you can't suddenly declare that same reasoning unacceptable when a corporation does it for essentially the same reason.
You don't get to have your cake and eat it too. Either you apply the same standards of criticism and ridicule to individuals and corporations, or your argument doesn't hold water.
You're either okay with piracy as a principle, or you're not. You don't get to create one standard for individuals and another for corporations simply because you prefer one of them.
That's exactly what I'm doing though. Imagine standing there with a bullhorn shouting that you just downloaded every available movie, show, research paper, news article, etc and you're now profiting significantly off of it, as an individual. You'd get sued into oblivion if you weren't sent to prison first.
I still think pirating is okay and that the US twisting the world's arm to enforce the DMCA is fucking BS but if we have to suffer with it then the billion dollar companies should have to too
Privacy is not ok. People are stealing intellectual property. You can dress it up however you want, but that doesn't change what is actually happening.
At some point, you have to stop convincing yourself that you're somehow not breaking the law simply because enforcement is difficult or unlikely. Let's not beat around the bush: I'm completely comfortable with what I'm hypothetically doing when I hypothetically pirate media, and I fully understand exactly what is taking place. I'm not pretending otherwise.
And let's be honest, people aren't exactly hiding it. They're openly discussing it, building massive communities around it, sharing methods and resources, and publicly arguing for why they think it's justified. Look at the conversation we're having right now. The difference is that, in practice, prosecuting every individual pirate or every corporation doing something similar, is generally not worth the resources required.
But that's a question of enforcement, not legality.
Look, man. You don't have to morally agree with piracy, and you don't have to pretend it's something other than what it is. Just admit to yourself what is actually taking place when someone pirates something: they're obtaining and using copyrighted material without the copyright holder's authorization. Whether you personally think that's justified is a completely separate question.
They're all in bed together.
Exactly, this is to implement mechanism to block political sites that the state doesn't approve. Please contact your representatives.
US on the way to become a less free country than China lol
well on the way
China inspects each packet for vpn patterns. US still have lots of work to do.
obsf4, meek, SnowFlake, and WebTunnel all say hello.
Don't worry, we built up lots of processing power in data centers. We'll get there soon.
This goes far deeper than just "piracy". Everyone's favourite section 1201 of the DMCA also means that this bill will result in the US blocking foreign sites which explain to you how to fix your shit if you have to bypass even the most inane digital lock.
That's the whole point of VPN providers. They're not in your jurisdiction.
Sounds like another assault on freedom of speech.
Well, time to protest, and if need be, use the constitution how it was intended.
Or ... time to set my VPN to Canada.
I think the intent of the law is that it wouldn't mater. If the VPN blocks the site, you can't get to the site.
Why would a Canadian VPN server obey US block lists?
It wouldn't, which is why I roll my eyes every time I see a bill demanding what a VPN must do.
The only way for them to actually enforce this through VPNs is to block VPNs. Which, presumably, they'll do at some point, but with an exception list for companies paying the right license fee to use a Government Approved VPN.
Which, obviously, will be full of security flaws, and likely won't be HIPPA compliant or other compliances etc, etc.
There are ways to obfuscate VPN traffic that's resistant to DPI. It makes it look like normal HTTPS traffic. That will make completely blocking VPNs difficult. I'm sure even more effective obfuscation methods will be developed if VPN blocking becomes widespread.
Thats a good point.
Regardless, technology is too advanced for the lawmakers anyway.
Might as well just start enforcing amish policy adoption laws.
HTTPS will be banned, unless you install the government CA certs that let them decrypt your traffic.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/you-should-not-trust-russias-new-trusted-root-ca
So, basically there's the internet, then there's the US internet. People will start moving to China for more freedoms.
Did you forget about the Great Firewall?
Not that even it can defeat VPNs anyway.
A Canadian based VPN provider wouldn't have to but a US based VPN provider with a Canadian node likely would. And the law (or subsequent revisions) would likely make it illegal for a provider, regardless of where it is based, to offer service if they aren't complaint with US laws.
I don't know if you're familiar with how VPNs work, but it's basically like a computer in the other country is sharing its internet connection with you.
So let's imagine that things are reversed, and you're a VPN provider in the United States and you're sharing your internet connection with some computers in another country, like Saudi Arabia, for example.
And just to be clear, you conduct no business in Saudi Arabia. You're just sharing your internet connection with people from there. You don't have any associates in Saudi Arabia, and you have no intention of ever going to Saudi Arabia.
And let's say that Saudi Arabia passed a law that said VPN providers had to block some kind of content, like maybe banning all access to content about your favorite band.
How is this going to affect the VPN service you provide to the other computers?
You VPN into Canada and then sign onto another VPN from there? Would that work?
Hell, depending on how the law is written and how clever the lawyers are, the VPN can ship you out to Canada, then connect you back to the network via an authentication token that verifies you are a member of the service without verifying your country of origin.
......where are you from?
Wrong question these days.
I forgot..
A/S/L?
Well, based on what he said, he's wrong.
Unless he's not from the usa. So before I pointed out the flaw in his plan, I want to make sure I'M not wrong.
Yeah, good luck with enforcing that to foreign VPN providers, you dumb fucks.
Next step is blocking access to foreign VPN providers. They are dumb fucks, but they are persistent dumb fucks.
Double VPN? VPS in Europe? Tor?
Life... Finds a way. Piracy too.
I think so too - we and many others won't have an issue getting whatever we need. But the broad masses might not, and this legislation also aims at things like repair instructions and tools to fix your shit thanks to Section 1201 of the DMCA.
Yes, exactly the point: first take access to information from most people. Then slowly close the trap more and more tight
Only nutjobs like us gonna go double vpn+ tor. Not a single normie would ever go though this.
Look at China. One can penetrate the great firewall but need to jump through so many hoops just to get a shitty internet connection to the rest of the world. Normies there just won't do it.
I think China isn't just "it's hard", but also the risk of caught is very high.
Obviously those will then be blocked entirely.
I got a disconnect for alleged piracy, all it did was give me completely free internet when I bypassed it.
And the government folks, especially in the current admin full of DOGE boys and crypto bros, are even dumber than the corpos who can;t get anything right.
Sure, obviously. These idiots can't even tie their own shoes without assistants. But sure.
And wouldn't you know it, anything that disagrees with the current regime is piracy.
Not just piracy. Woke piracy.
Woke piracy is the best piracy!!
"Freedom" LMAO
Free as in beer. (The citizens are the product)
We're just not allowed to use computers in any way that actually benefits us, anymore? Digital prison man.
In any country. Which is already nudging me in the direction of buying some land and weapons, set up some kind of a farm and let humanity fuck itself however it wants. Big problem though: land and weapons cost way more than I can afford
You'll get there, don't worry. We're working on that ourselves too. I'm at least half way there.
Yay, I am glad for you:)
That's the dream.
But surely the whole point of using the VPN is to use one that's outside of U.S authority?
Not if you want low lacency.
IMO your main concern should be about what country the VPN is based out of (and their privacy policy) more than where the servers are located. But then again I suppose it all depends on what kind of activity you're using your VPN for.
When I was messing around with my VPN, I was looking at translated news from Germany, France and Spain and they all have more or less different data usage policies. It's interesting but at the same time, you can just go on a news website that a country mainly uses and translate it.
Interstingly though, when I used a VPN, it changes all the typical homepage shortcuts on Google chrome to what Germany, France and Spain uses for the main shortcuts.
Darrell Issa out of California appears to have proposed this, I assume because he is not seeking re-election.
Who wants to take a bet he is getting paid for it?
He is getting paid. Not only has the Motion Picture Association contributed to political campaigns but it very recently gave awards and money to two politicians that promote their interests
For specifics on donations see: https://myreptracker.com/campaign-finance/committees/C00139519/motion-picture-association-inc-political-action-committee-mpaamerica-pac
In 2025, the MPA gave Chris Coons its Industry Champion Award and also honored Darrell Issa. MPA CEO Charles Rivkin described Coons as a “trusted partner” and praised Issa as a “true partner” on matters important to film and television.
It’s very basic corruption in broad daylight, and it’s pretty common in US politics today. As far as I know, you can’t prove corruption in court without some form of wiretapping or paper trail, which is trivial for them to avoid. So they’ll never get in trouble for being absolute utter dog shit human beings.
Ban the RIAA and MPAA.
My ISP wondering why I only ever access 5 servers in Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Finland
The Corrupt Empire of America at it again.
I think they are copying what France and Germany are trying to do and make it worse.
Land of the free, huh?
That has only ever applied to wealthy land owners.
White?
Originally, yes, but it's not a deal breaker anymore if you're wealthy enough. So, progress, I guess....
I think i2p may see a big uptick in usage then.
Time to buy a vps and put wireguard on it.
I was going to say, this only stops children with no techie friends. Pirates use seedboxes already. Everyone else knows how to double hop.
You also don’t technically need DNS to access websites but even if you did the constant influx of fake slop and scam sites filling search results of Google and Bing should be some indication of the difficulty of maintaining and enforcing a blacklist.
But this is why many switch to new systems like IPFS or return to old ones like Usenet.
Firefox supports sending DNS over socks proxies. If you want to really hide it, you can use something like xray
Sounds like they want people board and mad, a historically winning combination.
Hungry soon too
So we’re going Iran/China with our internet?
host your own recursive DNS like technitium or unbound then you remain in control they can't deny root DNS
DNS only handles the initial domain-to-IP translation.
What the article is (mostly) talking about is the second step - blocking access to the destination IP/site entirely.
Aggressively stupid bullshit, fuck these clowns.
Where is US gdpr?
These rats only do good for corporations.
"would"
Yeah they try this all the time. But holy shit these comments acting like it's already happened, and then gone into full blown USSR mode, are a bit inflammatory.
So just browse piracy sites with Tor. Bittorrent clients might struggle to access blocked trackers, but the DHT can't really be censored IIUC.
EDIT: It might even be possible to configure Bittorrent clients to use Tor specifically for communication with trackers (but not for the bulk P2P chunk transfers).
EDIT2: Not sure why I'm getting downvoted. Maybe the next person to downvote could reply and explain why.
All new media (other than documentaries) are meaningless. AI slop, propaganda, white washing or ego porn.
If you think documentaries can't be propaganda, I have an excellent bridge for sale
Mainstream media? Sure. Leave the mainstream world and connect with indies of every kind of art. You'll discover a whole new world.
It really is. The same open world games, the same sitcoms and movies, the same soulless music. None of it has any soul anymore, it's not even actual expression or art...
Meh… I don’t pirate anthing, so… non-issue from where I stand. Though I can see how this would upset a lot of people.
Speaking out against the regime is now a form of piracy and banned.
See the problem? It’s abusable.
The regime doesn’t need this buffoonery to ban freedom of speech. They’re already trying that shit regardless of piracy.
So you are okay give giving your enemy another weapon to fire at you?
What other weapon? I already said I don’t pirate anything. This is a harmless weapon to use against me.
Great, no concern to anyone then because it doesn’t affect you personally. Why did you even reply?
You're signed up here, on Lemmy, through PieFed.ca, right?
So it WILL affect you as soon as they add it to the piracy list.
That you resort to ad hominem when people disagree with you shows you aren’t mature enough to discuss this in any meaningful way.
Also- it shows that I won’t be missing anthing when I block your immature ass.
No.
Wait.
Come back….
But you do use the dns system, right?
I do.