One of the reasons for isoHunt to implement SSL encryption, however, was a recent block by the Dubai government. isoHunt founder Gary Fung told TorrentFreak: “We decided to implement SSL to avoid eavesdropping on search, to bypass slow proxies, and to get around blocks like in Dubai.”

Earlier this year, Dubai started to block access to several BitTorrent sites, including isoHunt. With SSL, however, the site can be reached again, without any problems. There seems to be quite a demand for secure browsing as according to a poll on isoHunt, more than 80% of the users indicated that they will browse the site on an encrypted connection from now on.

Not only is isoHunt now accessible via SSL, its sister site TorrentBox, and the TorrentBox forums can also be reached over an encrypted connection. In the weeks to come, the isoHunt team will monitor how many users are browsing over SSL.

“We’ll be evaluating how much extra load this places on our servers over the next few weeks, and if there’s a large outpouring of people preferring to browse isoHunt or TorrentBox securely, we’ll be investing in some dedicated hardware to handle the SSL connections.”

For now, SSL is a great, and much needed, solution to censoring ISPs. Dubai is not the only country that blocks BitTorrent sites. Turkey does the same, so does a Danish ISP, and earlier this year the Kuwait government ordered ISPs to block access to 20 BitTorrent sites.

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

Before the law was passed, The Pirate Bay crew spoke out against it, and now they are upping the ante. In an initial response they went out putting “wanted posters” up, of politicians who voted in favor of the law. Their next move is to ask international ISPs to block traffic to Sweden, according to Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde.

“Together with other people that work against this law we’ve talked about asking international ISPs to block traffic to Sweden,” Peter writes on his blog. “Yes, that’s right! We want Sweden to be banned from the Internet. The ISPs need to block Sweden in order to protect their own customers integrity since everything they do on Swedish ISPs networks will be logged and searched.”

That is not all though. In addition to these lobbying efforts The Pirate bay will also add SSL encryption to their site, and they will inform their users on how to protect their privacy. For Swedes they already have a VPN solution up and running, which they will open up to international users in the near future.

“We’re going to help out in any way we can with fighting the law,” Peter writes. “This week we’re going to add SSL to The Pirate Bay. We’re also going to help out making a website about easy encryption – both for your harddrives and your net traffic.”

It’s good to see that The Pirate Bay team will not give up their privacy as easy as some of the politicians. “Trust me, this war is not lost,” Peter told TorrentFreak. “We will win. We have many aces up our sleeves and we’re gonna use them. No worries.”

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