MPA Secures New Blocking Order for 19 Pirate Streaming Domains
- The Motion Pictures Association has secured a blocking order for ISP-level blocking of 19 streaming sites in teh UK.
- These are all pirate sites that will be actively monitored for jumps over to new proxies and mirrors.
- The MPA says blocking the sites is first and foremost about keeping users safe from malware infections and fraud.
The MPA (Motion Pictures Association) has secured a blocking order in the UK to prevent British users from accessing a set of 19 pirate streaming sites. The order is handed over to major internet service providers like Sky, BT, TalkTalk, and Virgin, who should now comply by blocking access to these pirate platforms, as well as any mirrors, proxies, or different domains they may attempt to jump to in the future in order to circumvent the restricting measures.
The full list of the blocked domains is given below:
- 1movies.best
- azm.to, bflix.to
- couchtuners.co
- couchtuner.fashion
- couchtuner.guru
- couchtuner.stream
- fmovie.sc
- lookmovie.io
- moviesjoy.to
- myflixer.to
- series9.ac,
- soap2day.to
- vidcloud9.com
- vumoo.to
- watchmovie.movie
- watchsomuch.tv
- yesmovies.net
- yify-movies.net
The most notable case in the new blocklist is "Soap2Day", a website that enjoys roughly 63 million visitors per month, with half of its traffic coming from the U.S. Other popular cases are Lookmovie.io, Moviesjoy.to, and Myflixer.to, all offering access to a large collection of media coming from various platforms.
Many of these sites are actually even more popular in the United States than they are in the UK, so the MPA should make an effort to secure a blocking order there too; otherwise, financially struggling these pirate platforms isn’t a realistic expectation. However, the way blocking orders are issued in these two countries, and the level of legal involvement and liability for the ISP is vastly different, so there’s a discrepancy in the legal and financial resources required in each case.
Officially, the MPA hasn’t underlined the protection of the interests of rightsholders like Netflix, Amazon, and Walt Disney - but instead chose to speak for the protection of the people and how these pirate sites oftentimes distribute malware to their visitors. Identity theft and fraud are also two dire possibilities for those who give away their payment and other personal details during their subscription to shady pirate platforms.
If you are based in the UK, and you're looking for ways to bypass restrictions and censorship in general, check out this list with the best VPN tools to help you do so. Note that we do not promote the use of VPNs to bypass anti-piracy measures or to access content illegally, and we fully agree with MPA's statements regarding the risks of using these pirate sites.