Cloudflare is now blocking numerous pirate sites for UK web users

Piracy remains a serious problem for the music and movie industries as well as for software developers, authors, and more. In a radical new attempt to crack down on pirated material, Cloudflare has started to block access to pirate sites in the UK.

This is a significant expansion of anti-piracy measures. ISPs in the UK – as in many other countries – block access to known pirate sites, often because they are legally required to do so. But these blocks can be evaded in various ways, including through the use of VPNs. This is something Cloudflare’s new pirate blocks aim to stop.

The problem with the current system of requiring UK internet services to block access to sites that provide access to pirate material is that it places huge pressure on ISPs. These can be relatively small companies – although this is not always the case – and the financial burden can be huge. As it is not really in the interests of ISPs to fight legal orders to block access to particular sites, it is not unheard of for legitimate sites to be blocked.

As reported by TorrentFreak, the sudden involvement of Cloudflare in the matter comes somewhat out of the blue. It sees the blocking of pirate site taken to a higher level, making blocks easier to implement on a wider scale, but also much more difficult to get around.

If a user in the UK attempts to visit a site that features on the ban list, they are greeted by an Error HTTP 451 and the message:

In response to a legal order, Cloudflare has taken steps to limit access to this website through Cloudflare’s pass-through security and CDN services within the United Kingdom.

Not much more information is available, but Cloudflare adds:

Because Cloudflare cannot remove content it does not host, other service providers are better positioned to address these issues. Among other things, any blocking by Cloudflare is of limited effectiveness, as a website will be accessible if it stops using Cloudflare’s network. Cloudflare therefore regularly pushes back against attempts to seek blocking orders.

As TorrentFreak notes, the hope of transparency surrounding the blocking of sites is wishful thinking. Information about the list of sites blocked, who called for individual blocks to be put in place, and other details can be hard – if not impossible – to come by.

At the moment, it seems as though Cloudflare is blocking access to around 200 sites, but what happens next is not clear. From an end-user’s point of view, getting through Cloudflare domain blocks is extraordinarily difficult, but it will be interesting to see how the blocked sites respond.

It is likely that we will see – as has happened in the past – an explosion in the number of mirror sites. History looks set to repeat itself with a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.