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Maybe no-one technical, but here in the UK where DNS-based blocking is very prevalent, I know most of my non-technical friends don’t know how to access a websit

Maybe no-one technical, but here in the UK where DNS-based blocking is very prevalent, I know most of my non-technical friends don’t know how to access a website that’s been blocked in this way, and wouldn’t think to look for mirrors. I’ve tried to explain the process of piracy via torrents to people and it just goes over their heads.

tialaramex 5y ago
You don't need mirrors, you just need a DNS server that doesn't implement this policy. Historically the government reaction to that was to censor the DNS protocol itself. Trouble is, by the time they got around to legislating for such things, DNS is already optionally encrypted. In Firefox for example General -> Networking Settings -> Enable DNS over HTTPS
- josephcsible 5y ago
  And you don't think Sony Music is going to make them block use-application-dns.net next, for being a circumvention tool or something?
  - tialaramex 5y ago
    use-application-dns.net is a canary for the default behaviour, but the configuration switch I described is a deliberate user choice, so the canary isn't relevant.
GekkePrutser 5y ago
Ah but I'm not talking about getting around the actual DNS part (even though that is indeed trivial). I'm talking about obtaining the content. Sooner or later they'll just ask a techie friend where they can still get their sweet torrents and they're back in business. They've blocked the pirate bay in the Netherlands for a long time and it was hardly effective at all. In fact it did the opposite: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2047227/downloading-increases-in-the-netherlands-despite-pirate-bay-block-study-finds.html https://www.pcworld.com/article/2047227/downloading-increase... And finally, don't forget: The people who are using Quad 9 are people who do know what they're doing. Otherwise they'd be simply using their provider DNS.

tialaramex 5y ago

You don't need mirrors, you just need a DNS server that doesn't implement this policy. Historically the government reaction to that was to censor the DNS protocol itself. Trouble is, by the time they got around to legislating for such things, DNS is already optionally encrypted. In Firefox for example General -> Networking Settings -> Enable DNS over HTTPS

josephcsible 5y ago
And you don't think Sony Music is going to make them block use-application-dns.net next, for being a circumvention tool or something?
- tialaramex 5y ago
  use-application-dns.net is a canary for the default behaviour, but the configuration switch I described is a deliberate user choice, so the canary isn't relevant.

GekkePrutser 5y ago

Ah but I'm not talking about getting around the actual DNS part (even though that is indeed trivial). I'm talking about obtaining the content. Sooner or later they'll just ask a techie friend where they can still get their sweet torrents and they're back in business. They've blocked the pirate bay in the Netherlands for a long time and it was hardly effective at all. In fact it did the opposite: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2047227/downloading-increases-in-the-netherlands-despite-pirate-bay-block-study-finds.html https://www.pcworld.com/article/2047227/downloading-increase... And finally, don't forget: The people who are using Quad 9 are people who do know what they're doing. Otherwise they'd be simply using their provider DNS.