Blocking pirate sites was a novelty ten years ago, but today it is common practice in many countries. This is also true for Greece, where the the first domains were signed up in 2018.
These blocking requests are handled by EDPPI, a special commission of the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports that acts on complaints from rights holders.
The Greek system is different from many other countries because it does not involve judicial oversight. It is an administrative procedure that allows copyright holders to quickly request blockades of pirated sites, without the need for lengthy and costly legal procedures.
47 new targeted domains
The most recent blocking request was submitted by the Society for the Protection of Audiovisual Works (EPOE), a local anti-piracy group representing the interests of major Greek copyright holders. The company previously obtained a blocking order against The Pirate Bay, 1337x and YTS, and requests expansions regularly.
The new blocking order, granted a few days ago, targets 47 domain names. Several of these are for proxies or copies of the popular RARBG torrent site, such as rarbgto.org, proxyrarbg.or, rarbgget.org, rarbgmirror.com, and rarbgmirror.org.
Other pirated sites on the list include various domains of popular streaming sites. Flixtor, Filmix and Watchservies. Additionally, torrent sites Zooqle, TorrentGalaxy, and various KickassTorrents-inspired sites are also covered.
Pirated subtitles
Virtually every domain on the list offers access to pirated movies and TV shows, with one exception. The expansion of the block list also targeted long lasting OpenSubtitles subtitle community, which does not host or link to infringing videos.
While OpenSubtitles is the odd one out, the site has been the target of similar blocking requests in the past. In Australia, for example, the Federal Court issued an injunction after several film companies argued that OpenSubtitles 'communicates a literary work to the public', referencing film scripts.
However, it is doubtful that the lack of (open) subtitles will prevent Greeks from pirating movies and TV shows, especially since there are many solutions.
Two escape routes
TorrentFreak spoke with one of the site operators affected by the blocks. We were informed that EDPPI sent an official notice before it went into effect, presenting two escape routes. Site operators can acquire a license or file an official appeal.
"[Y]You can voluntarily comply with the request of the applicant or obtain from the applicant a relevant license within ten business days from the date of receipt of the notification, โwrote EDPPI.
"Alternatively, you can raise your objections to the Committee within five business days from the date of receipt of the notification, sending, at the same time, all the evidence showing, in particular, that there is no violation."
The site operator we spoke to does not intend to take any action and we are not aware of anyone else who will.
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The full list of blocked sites is as follows: 123moviesfree.net, europixhd.one, europixhd.biz, fevgatotv-tainies.com, filmix.ac, filmix.co, filmix.me, flixtor.to, flixtor.is, flixtor. it, flixtor.nu, flixtor.one, flixtor.se, flixtor.vc, fmovies.to, gamato-movies.com, gamato-movies.gr, greek.to, greekin.info, greek-team.cc, hellasddl. eu, kickasstorrents.to, kat.am, katcr.to, kickasstorrent.cr, kickasstorrents.cr, moviez.space, onlinemovie.one, onlinemovie.gr, opensubtitles.org, promovies.pro, rarbgto.org, proxyrarbg.or, rarbgget.org, rarbgmirror.com, rarbgmirror.org, rarbgproxy.org, teniesonline.gr, tenies-online.gr, torrent4you.me, torrentgalaxy.to, torrentgalaxy.mx, torrentgalaxy.su, voody.online, watchserieshd.tv, watchserieshd.io and zooqle.com.
