Piracy is one of the main concerns of authorities around the world, the media and the main producers of audiovisual content. Using IPTV to watch streaming content is one of the most common options today, but not all of them are legal. Services are constantly being blocked and heavily fined, although some seem to not care too much, as they quickly start up the activity under another domain name. If you want to check if a pirate download or streaming website is blocked in our country, you can do it in a matter of seconds. We explain how.
Using a pirate IPTV can cause you a lot of trouble. From facing the theft of your bank details, loss of the money you are paying for the service and even having to face legal problems for using a service that is not allowed. Around the world there are a variety of blocking systems especially aimed at pirate sites. Some require ISPs to block access, while others focus on advertisers by posting a blacklist. Pirate blocklists for advertisers are not new, but until not too many years ago they were relatively local lists. As it was a matter of interest to a global audience, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) decided to develop a global system in which to know if a pirated download or streaming website is blocked and in which countries.
WIPO ALERT Block List
The WIPO Advertiser Blocklist of Pirate Sites has more than 7,000 domain names, of which 4,000 are active. In order to show a more transparent system for the general public, it is now possible to do a search to check if a specific site is listed and in which country it is blocked. Without sharing any names, WIPO states that the majority of targeted sites have a .com domain, followed by .net, .ru and .org. Among the countries that have agreed to contribute domains to the search part are Spain, Italy, Russia, Peru, Ecuador and Lithuania.
WIPO ALERT
To check if a website has been included in the database of WIPO ALERT it is as simple as copying the URL of the web in the enabled field. For example, if we try with “thepiratebay.org” the system reveals that it is a website that is on the advertising blocking list in both Spain and Italy, as can be seen in the following image.
thepiratebay.org blocked in Spain and Italy
WIPO legal advisor has declared in Torrentfreak that “we are constantly trying to improve the system; in this case, site operators who are concerned that their sites may be listed on WIPO ALERT can carry out a check and contact the appropriate national authority if necessary.”
