687
Federal bill would force VPN providers, ISPs, and DNS services to block foreign piracy sites
(www.tomshardware.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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Sounds like they want people board and mad, a historically winning combination.
Hungry soon too
Aggressively stupid bullshit, fuck these clowns.
Sounds like another assault on freedom of speech.
Ban the RIAA and MPAA.
My ISP wondering why I only ever access 5 servers in Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Finland
political theater. won't happen because it's unenforceable.
- VPNs operate outside of federal control
- ISPs leverage DNS blocking to censor which is laughable
- DNS exists outside of the US
if this does happen, IF, it has nothing to do with IP rights or protecting Americans. it has everything to do with censoring what the majority of common Americans read online. this is the first step towards blocking news outlets that won't regurgitate whitehouse directives.
I'm a bit surprised they've gone with piracy as an excuse - usually it's "Think of the children!" Maybe they've finally figured out that we already know that republicans are thinking of (molesting) the children so they've fallen back on "You wouldn't download a car".
- ISPs leverage DNS blocking to censor
And blocking the IP address of the site in question, as well. That’s why so many “illegal” sites jump around IP addresses like a flea on a hot griddle. They’re trying to remain accessible whenever the ISP prevents direct access.
Because if you block the IP address, blocking DNS is superfluous and performative -- it’s just window dressing for better optics towards politicians who don’t understand tech. DNS censorship trivially bypassible by using custom DNS servers that aren’t affected by the censorship, while IP blocking hits everyone who is under that ISP regardless of their DNS settings - they need a VPN to bypass IP blocking.
all that's going to do is give them an excuse to block IPs outside the US by the block.
keep an eye on the FCC and any legislation they take against HAM or SDR. without that it would be difficult to have any comms outside the US.
No, IP blocking is widespread in most places, it’s just that “rights holder” lawsuits go after the domain name, first, both in terms of the registrar and DNS. They also force ISPs to block IP addresses, but this is more of a whack-a-mole prospect so it’s usually a second-order method.
And wouldn't you know it, anything that disagrees with the current regime is piracy.
Not just piracy. Woke piracy.
Woke piracy is the best piracy!!
But surely the whole point of using the VPN is to use one that's outside of U.S authority?
Not if you want low lacency.
IMO your main concern should be about what country the VPN is based out of (and their privacy policy) more than where the servers are located. But then again I suppose it all depends on what kind of activity you're using your VPN for.
When I was messing around with my VPN, I was looking at translated news from Germany, France and Spain and they all have more or less different data usage policies. It's interesting but at the same time, you can just go on a news website that a country mainly uses and translate it.
Interstingly though, when I used a VPN, it changes all the typical homepage shortcuts on Google chrome to what Germany, France and Spain uses for the main shortcuts.
This leads to the government deciding which websites you can visit and cant visit down the line. This is a dystopian level of control and with surveillance already getting dystopian… Pick your dystopian technology book and decide which one we’re leading towards. Fascism policies are already on the rise in democratic worlds.
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That's the whole point of VPN providers. They're not in your jurisdiction.
This goes far deeper than just "piracy". Everyone's favourite section 1201 of the DMCA also means that this bill will result in the US blocking foreign sites which explain to you how to fix your shit if you have to bypass even the most inane digital lock.
host your own recursive DNS like technitium or unbound then you remain in control they can't deny root DNS
DNS only handles the initial domain-to-IP translation.
What the article is (mostly) talking about is the second step - blocking access to the destination IP/site entirely.
Great, more boomers who can't understand how the internet works.
This doesn't stem from a lack of understanding. It's about corporations and control.
We need to stop believing the boomer’s framing that they’re all old and dumb, and start realizing that they’d eat us if we tasted good
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Like this will ever work. lol. Just don’t get VPN from a company that is headquartered in the US. Problem solved. There are a million other ways to bypass this. There will ALWAYS be away, they’re just trying to make it harder for the experienced, and impossible for your average Joe.
This is the same party that are all for unregulated AI use and no consequences for breaking copyright to train it.
This bill's goal is to provide a standardized mechanism to filter sites then start blocking sites that state doesn't approve.
It's same as the other "think of the children" bills of the party that is protecting pedophiles.
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We're just not allowed to use computers in any way that actually benefits us, anymore? Digital prison man.
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Yeah, good luck with enforcing that to foreign VPN providers, you dumb fucks.
Next step is blocking access to foreign VPN providers. They are dumb fucks, but they are persistent dumb fucks.
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The Corrupt Empire of America at it again.
I think they are copying what France and Germany are trying to do and make it worse.
Choose your DNS provider wisely
And ensure your VPN provider isn’t headquartered in the US (or better yet any five eyes nation) nor one of the ones owned by the Israeli Billionaire Teddy Sagi who likely also has deep ties to the Israeli and US governments
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I think i2p may see a big uptick in usage then.
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