Kuwait Government Blocks 20 BitTorrent Sites
Written by Ernesto on February 12, 2008As of today, the Kuwait government ordered ISPs to block access to 20 BitTorrent sites. The ultimate goal of the state of Kuwait is to ban all BitTorrent sites in an attempt to reduce piracy, but this is not likely to happen anytime soon.
As in most countries, BitTorrent sites have gained a lot of popularity over recent years in Kuwait. BitTorrent sites are frequently visited, not only with the nationals, but also with the many foreign employees who are stationed there. Most foreigners use BitTorrent as a replacement for the Tivo they have at home, so they can catch up with the latest TV-shows.
However, this is about to change - or is it?
United Networks, a large ISP active in the Kuwait area, has recently notified its customers about the new torrent site filter. They write: “The Ministry of information has today sent us a letter announcing they will be blocking all Torrent sites. This is due to piracy laws of the State of Kuwait and to protect the intellectual property of the pirated content on these sites.”
BitTorrent site filters are not new, last year Turkey blocked The Pirate Bay, a week ago the Danish ISP Tele2 had to do the same. Protesting does help sometimes, a few months ago, Mininova (not included in the Kuwait list) was blocked by an ISP in Dubai, a country in the same region as Kuwait. Only a few days later, the ISP in question decided to unblock Mininova as many customers complained, and threatened to move to another service provider.
It is unlikely that the Kuwait government will respond in the same way, but perhaps this is not needed anyway. If you take a look at the list of 20 torrent sites that was released today, you’ll probably understand that the state of Kuwait is not really up to date on what’s going on in the BitTorrent community. They missed most of the bigger BitTorrent sites, and several sites they listed ceased to exist months ago.
The Kuwait 20….
www.demonoid.com (has been offline for a while)
www.extratorrent.com
www.fulldls.com
www.meganova.org (is no more, redirects to SeedPeer)
www.seedpeer.com
www.nfo.com.il (not loading)
www.piratic.org
www.worldnova.org
www.power-portal.to
www.smartorrent.com
www.thepiratebay.org
www.torrentazos.com
www.torrent-base.dl.am (redirects to Usenext)
www.torrentlounge.com
www.torrentplaza.be
www.tvtorrents.com
www.xphilez.com
www.zakatron.com
www.zonamule.com (parked domain)
www.zoozle.de
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lol! but tor (torproject) and proxy sites have been blocked as well! so, only who have a server outside kuwait or have already installed tor would be lucky, because these 2 r the only way to download torrents + torrents can be used for legal purposes as well :P
they did this for pornography like someone said not copyright. adult sites r already blocked in kuwait. and mininova.org is not blocked because it doesnt have adult content.
the most funny things ever heard . but I don’t think that this will have any big impact to kuwait people but rather to Mostly foreigners that working there.
this is awesome!
[quote comment="288135"]That fascist country America will spread it’s draconian laws everywhere.
Democracies of the world are being destroyed by Americans.[/quote]
Wow, you really are dumb.
It is NOT Americans, its the American Government, specifically George Bush.
Im not even American, im just not an ignorant European.
I live in Kuwait, for a several months and do not really disapointed with its policy, cause of using the http://www.strongvpn.com Open VPN account. So now i’m using the american IP while surfing the Internet. Sometimes the government blocks more services, like Skype or Google, but i really do not care :D
That is what I wish you.
lol. Im a teen currently living in Q8. If the government did this to stop the people from watching pornography they arent doing a very good job. My friends both foreigners and kuwaitis have figured out a way around this by fiddling around with the proxy numbers so that they can go any site they want. Now my friends still get to download all they want without worrying bout blocked sites.
So they care so much about piracy? Why dont they shut all the stores in Hawalli, an area famous in Kuwait for selling all kinds of illegal copies. Or why don’t they take over all those street sellers who are every where in Kuwait?
Why kill a technology instead?
For anyone from kuwait .. use a web proxy site http://www.hidemyass.com goverment is blocking EVERYTHING stupid hairy cock eaters
Kuwait is irrelevant as most if not all gulf so called contries. It is the foreigners who are going to be affected by any such practicies.
i have never heard of 10/20 of those sites … i don’t know is in charge of this blocking, but they seem like they have never been on the internet.
see, I figured new ways than my old comment! Internet is one network and Kuwait gov. is like ur parents that worries that u smoke!! u can smoke outside at mid night without them noticing… u can surf the internet freely without em noticing :P .. Internet is one network and community with no laws.. no goverments.. just use ur brian to play games !! (I wrote this comment in a weird way, didnt i?)
what is use of blocking torrent site while you can get same contents easier in any CD/DVD shop. (dont speak arabic, and dont wear arabic, and you get access to the banned stuff)
Most of these sites are already blocked in United Arab Emirates…booooooooo
Kuwait sucks ass, I’ve been their and the hole country smells like shit, forget that 1/4 of the internet their is blocked, those people are fucking idiots.
Their old amir (presidant) that died two years ago was a fucking moro, and he really scrowed that peace a crap country.
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