Pirate Bay Launches PirateBrowser "Anti Censorship Tool"

[Karloff]

Pirate Bay Launches PirateBrowser "Anti Censorship Tool"

"Do you know any people who can't access TPB or other torrents-sites because they are blocked? Recommend PirateBrowser to them," says Pirate Bay.

Pirate Bay is celebrating a milestone birthday - ten years - and one of the presents its given itself is a new PirateBrowser, a self-proclaimed "anti censorship tool." If you can't access the Bay because your ISP is blocked, the Browser is here to help. "It's a simple one-click browser that circumvents censorship and blockades and makes the site instantly available and accessible," says The Pirate Bay. "No bundled ad-ware, toolbars or other crap, just a pre-configured Firefox browser."

It uses the Tor network, designed for anonymous surfing, plus FireFox and some custom add-ons. It's not the only way to get past official blocks by any means, as proxy services have proved time and again, but it's the Pirate Bay's way of adding a little fuel to the fire. PirateBrowser [http://piratebrowser.com/] is not completely anonymous, the Pirate Bay warns, and folks looking for a more secure set-up ought to use a virtual private network. Pirate Bay specifically names Iran, North Korea, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland as places it expects its PirateBrowser will be useful.

This isn't for Mac, Linux or anything other than PC for the moment, though it's possible the Pirate Bay may update its browser later. For the moment, its "tool to help people get around censorship" is all wrapped up in brightly colored paper with a big ribbon bow; time will tell how long it lasts, and whether the Pirate Bay will see another decade out.

Source: The Guardian [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/12/pirate-bay-piratebrowser-web-browser]


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[Teoes]

The fact that the UK is getting named and shamed alongside countries like Iran and North Korea is really depressing. (ifeelyoubro shout out to folks in the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland..)

Sounds like a funny thing. Surely most of the people who doggedly circumvent their contry's blocks to keep accessing sites like this have no need of a dedicated browser? Nice nonetheless and a trololol-chuckle at various governments.

 

[VanBasten]

This isn't for Mac, Linux or anything other than PC for the moment

I wish people would stop using "PC" when they mean to say "Windows"...

 

[rasputin0009]

This isn't for Mac, Linux or anything other than PC for the moment

I wish people would stop using "PC" when they mean to say "Windows"...

Semantics. Kinda silly to worry about. You'd be much happier if you just accepted the common usage.

OT: I like. Now that it's illegal in Canada to "pirate" (as of a year ago), this may actually be useful.

And I'm really confused by this site. It posts pro-piracy articles, but then the admins get real anal on you for admitting to piracy. (Note to admins: this post is not an admittance to piracy, I do not pirate.). I can see if the site doesn't want the place to become a hot-bed for links and such, but if it comes up in conversation (like this thread on a piracy article). Needs a little more leniency, I think.

 

[zidine100]

Do not touch this with a barge pole, the second the pirate bay gets taken down (and it will eventually they will eventually screw up) you will be screwed.

Why wouldn't someone keep it running long enough after they have compromised tpb to get all your information and sue the hell out of you. I presume it will use its own proxy or vpn and not just random ones on the net.

And no i do not condone piracy but using something like this with a really popular pirate brand name (cant belive i said that) is really freaking stupid.

 

[Simalacrum]

Pirate Bay specifically names Iran, North Korea, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland as places it expects its PirateBrowser will be useful.

Coincidentally, I just so happen to be going to North Korea tomorrow xD (No, seriously, that isn't a joke, I'm actually going in less than 24 hours)

I don't think it would work though; from what I understand, North Korea doesn't just 'block' the internet with censorship or whatever, it literally doesn't exist; no ethernet, no wifi, no nothing.

 

[Remus]

Pirate Bay specifically names Iran, North Korea, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland as places it expects its PirateBrowser will be useful.

Coincidentally, I just so happen to be going to North Korea tomorrow xD (No, seriously, that isn't a joke, I'm actually going in less than 24 hours)

I don't think it would work though; from what I understand, North Korea doesn't just 'block' the internet with censorship or whatever, it literally doesn't exist; no ethernet, no wifi, no nothing.

No electricity. I'm sure you've seen their grid at night up against South Korea.

I don't trust the U.S. Gov to not be watching me if I were to download this browser, so no thanks.

 

[IndieForever]

This is just a rebranded TorBrowser package, with a pre-configured exit node. There is nothing new here and it's not specific to TPB. Although you can be back-traced through TOR it would require an agency to be determined to pin you down and it is about as secure as anyone could reasonably need.

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

As far as I'm aware it is not illegal to browse torrent listing sites but it is illegal to then use one of those torrents to download copyrighted material. As has been discussed many a time, blocking the odd site here and there is pointless; this TPB 'package' is more of a publicity stunt than a new way to bypass filters.

It doesn't just open up TPB of course - it bypasses geographic restrictions on any website. All you need to do is tell it what country you want to appear to be browsing in by adding a line of code to a config file and you're done. That, too, is not illegal, but it may break Ts & Cs of sites.

However, there are some countries you would not want to try this in. I've been to Saudi quite a few times and I wouldn't dream of trying to watch iPlayer (hey, I'm a UK license payer!) or anything remotely un-Islamic from there. Same for North Korea, that is if you can break into a party leadership member's house and use their connection! Probably not worth the resulting punishment....

 

[Schadrach]

"... just a pre-configured Firefox browser."

So is it a hacked and modded version of Firefox or is it just settings and a plug-in for vanilla Firefox that knowledgeable users can configure on their own?

If I had to guess, it'll be the TOR browser bundle with a couple of convenient plugins added and TPB as the default home page.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Already exists, it's called Tor.
And that one is already refined, multi platform, and for general use in censoring countries like China and more recently UK so you will make less of a statement as to what the government should scan your connection for.

 

[Eric the Orange]

So does this "anti censorship tool" automatically turn off any add blockers. Can't censor those advertisers or you'd be a hypocrit.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Seems to be just TOR but marketing itself to be more accessible to people who don't know about TOR.

...Which I'm surprisingly ok with. The more people circumventing censorship laws the less censorship laws will be passed.

 

[evilneko]

I don't trust the U.S. Gov to not be watching me if I were to download this browser, so no thanks.

Implying they aren't already doing so...

 

[frobalt]

What the actual fuck? Surely this news article goes against the code of conduct of this forum by linking to a program that aids pirating.

I can't understand why people think they can justify software piracy.

It's ridiculous that this site is even informing its' users about new ways to get on a site dedicated to piracy. It's very hypocritical.

 

[Para199x]

So does this "anti censorship tool" automatically turn off any add blockers. Can't censor those advertisers or you'd be a hypocrit.

Choosing not to watch something isn't censorship...

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

So it's a Tor browser. That doesn't work on Mac and Linux systems.

Truly, a stunning innovation.

I love the guys at The Pirate Bay and all, but this is really a very pointless tool.