How can I easily block sites that serve illegal tv/movie streaming without blocking youtube, bbc, etc.?
My kids are constantly finding new sites that offer links to tv streaming or movies online. I'm sure they are all infringing copyright, but OpenDNS doesn't seem to be able to help me block them.
I've got the usual illegal categories blocked. The last site of theirs I looked up (one of the watchseries.<something> or www.watchtvfree.<something> ones) came under video sharing, tv and/or movies. Yet if I block movies it also blocks sites *about* movies (imdb, etc.), if I block TV it also blocks sites *about* tv (bbc, etc.) and if I block video sharing it blocks youtube (and all hell will break loose if I blocked that).
Is there seriously not a category in OpenDNS for blocking sites that seem to jump around/pop up and solely host or provide links to illegal content? There are so many I can't black or whitelist all of the required sites, and surely that is what OpenDNS is supposed to do for me - categorise the millions of sites so they can be blocked or allowed based on content *type*. What do I pick to block "primarily or solely infringing media sharing"?
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I do not think that there are sites blatantly offering "primarily or solely infringing media sharing", and this may be the reason why there is no such category. Honestly, I treat YouTube as such as well. All the music and movie videos there can't be legal...
I believe in your scenario it is best to block the related TV/Movie/Media/P2P/File sharing categories and explicitly whitelist the few you want to allow.
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It's a teaching opportunity... Tell your kids about illegal file use. Allow them to access YouTube only (as rotblitz pointed out, YouTube isn't squeaky clean). Any exceptions must be run by you. Any "end-arounds" and they will lose all access. Then watch your logs. And keep your kid's internet use in a public area where screen content can be observed by you.
It's pointless, and impossible to block every site serving illegal fare, and the site classification process here is too slow to afford absolute protection.
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@rotblitz: Thanks for your comments. I'm sure there's a lot of infringing material on YouTube, but they have a policy to take it down when informed, there is a lot of stuff that is fine, and many of the music videos, etc., are authorised, as I understand it (such as the "Vevo" ones, etc.) and act as marketing for the artists like radio airplay.
The sites I find my kids using seem to be foreign-based sites whose *sole* purpose seems to be to maintain links to whole series of many current TV shows. I am not sure but assume it is all infringing, which is why they rename themselves constantly. Or they may merely be serving links to the videos elsewhere, which is why they can (temporarily) get away with it.
I don't think anyone is going to get prosecuted for using youtube but I presume with these other sites it's pretty clear-cut that they are not distributing or pointing to material that they have the rights to, and people using them know that.
It's annoying that there does not seem to be a *useful* OpenDNS category to block for such sites.
@cervezafria: Thanks for your reply. I have, of course, told them about illegal file use, have kicked them off the router any number of times, etc., and I do check my logs, etc., which is how I come across these things. But life is busy, there are 101 other life lessons I need to teach them, and so on and so on, and the reason I use OpenDNS is so I don't have to spend my WHOLE life sitting next to them as they surf. Remember also that kids these days do tend to spend hours upon hours online (and often have unmanageable internet access on their GPRS/3G mobile devices anyway, but that's another issue!) and few adults have even close to the time to watch their kids' every move online because today's kids have so much free time that they spend online! So OpenDNS is supposed to help me block the majority of the bad stuff, with me just having to deal with the exceptions. And that's the problem - OpenDNS seems incapable of blocking sites that seem blatantly infringing without blocking many sites that are primarily not. I'm not looking for "absolute protection" but I don't think that makes it "pointless" to try to categorise and block illegal sites - that is in fact one of the prime purposes of OpenDNS - to block sites based on useful categories like illegal activity, weaponry, etc., etc. Yes it's impossible to categorise every site but it's certainly not pointless to try (and the OpenDNS people will surely agree with this as it is their business model!).
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Rotblitz - 'I do not think that there are sites blatantly offering "primarily or solely infringing media sharing", and this may be the reason why there is no such category.'
Honestly friend, have you ever even looked around the net?
Check out the following:
(then look for similar sites)
http://watchnew.freeonlinemoviestream.co
I think you need to educate yourself before giving out advice!
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@geaf... Funny... I went to the sites you suggested, and saw no notice of "infringing" material. I sent them an inquiry asking if they serve illegal media... hopefully, they will respond within a day or so.
It seems that you feel qualified as judge/jury to discern exactly what is legal. Fortunately, the OpenDNS filters use a voting process to establish appropriate filters. Wrongly declaring a site as "illegal" would have litigious consequences.
Until your govt elects stringent 'net filters. self-control is a good way to avoid suspected sites.
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Erm...look again Einstein.
http://watchnew.freeonlinemoviestream.co/watch-suspect-2013-full-movie.html = a movie that is copyrighted and yet is streamable on that page. Every other movie on that site is also streamable.
I honestly don't know how anyone could miss that.
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And for the other link...
http://www.vidics.ch/Film/Despicable_Me_2
Scroll down the page and look under the heading 'LINKS'. It is so blindingly obvious that I sincerely doubt YOUR ability to notice any infringing content, if you miss it when you are given direct links!! LOL
There are hundreds, thousands probably, of sites exactly the same.
Thanks for replying though, very good.
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Reposting your comment again doesn't make it more true. Exactly where do you see the word "illegal"... or are you playing judge/jury again.
Please stay with the facts, not your personal assertions. If you have an issue with the site, you can report it to the copyright owner. OpenDNS is not your personal cop.
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Did I ever say I saw the word 'illegal'? WTF. Let me explain it to your closed ears...'copyright infringing' is the key here Cerv.
Trying to be a smart ass does not make you smart, either. You know what I mean about those sites. I am not judging them to be illegal, they are serving up copyrighted material for free. I don't know what world you live in but I seem to remember that certain people, ie. the law, do not like such sites. In other words, it is illegal.
If the openDNS filtering system is supposed to be offering filters for domains by category then I am sure you will agree, these sites must go into a category for 'providing copyright infringement material' or similar. Stop playing semantics.Judge and jury? Hardly, I am indifferent to the law as much as I am to the kind of tripe movies these sites contain :)
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Youtube serves up copyrighted material for free. So what? We classify Youtube for "infringing media sharing"? Everything on the web is copyrighted, even your postings. Because it is free doesn't make it illegal. If you don't hold the copyright, you're in no position to say "infinging"... that's your netcop opinion--has no legal weight.
If you have issue with a site, report them to the copyright owner.
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I'm closing this thread as it has gotten off track. Copyright policies vary from country to country, so what may be copyright infringement in the US may not be in another country. As such, we do not offer categorization based on these policies as it would require an essentially unlimited number of categories or devolve into a "least common denominator" scenario where we simply list everything that could possibly be infringing in any country (at which point you've likely blacklisted the internet.) This is the very reason we supply you with the ability blacklist domains on your network.
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