India Expands Piracy Blocklist to Tackle ‘Hydra Headed Rogue Websites’ * TorrentFreak

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Blocking pirated sites is a common practice in many countries and India is no exception. However, the language used in Indian courts tends to be more colorful. This is exemplified by a blocking extension that several major Hollywood studios recently requested. According to the Delhi High Court, it points to an alphanumeric variation of a rogue hydra-headed website.

The final weeks of 2021 have been filled with new orders to block pirate sites around the world.

From Australia through the United Kingdom to Spain, several courts issued new blocking orders to make it difficult for the general public to access pirated sites.

In India, the local piracy block list is also expanding. This week we review a decision by the Delhi High Court, which targets the popular torrent site RARBG.

The underlying case was originally brought by several major Hollywood studios, including Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. The court granted the blocking order in 2019 but, as new domains continue to appear, it was updated this month to add "Rarbggo.org" and two IP addresses.

The Hydra threat spearheaded by Hollywood

This follow-up order is not particularly newsworthy as these types of expansions are quite common. However, the language used by the Indian court is quite unique and colorful, which is worth noting.

Rather than simply mentioning that RARBG can be accessed via a new domain and IP address, the court speaks of "Hydra Headed Rogue websites" mythically multiplying and resurfacing elsewhere. Emphasis added below.

“It is presented that, this Honorable Court was pleased to record that these websites are Hydra Headed Rogue websites who when blocked, really multiply and resurface as redirect or mirror or alphanumeric websites. "

The language is quoted from an earlier sentence that also adds a bit more background to the mythological hydra, which itself has nothing to do with piracy.

“It is pertinent to mention that in Greek mythology the Hydra, also called Lernaean Hydra, is a snake-shaped monster. The Hydra is a nine-headed serpent that looks like a snake. It was said that if you cut off a hydra head, two more would grow back "

At this point, the average reader of the order, which is not really up to date on hacking jargon, you might be quite confused. What does this nine-headed snake have to do with piracy? And what are those alphanumeric websites?

The second question is easy to answer. The term "alphanumeric websites" is the way the Indian courts refer to an alternative URL or IP address. And in fact, these are generally made up of alphanumeric characters.

The pirate roots of the hydra

The reference "hydra" also deserves a bit more context. On the hacking scene, this term was first popularized by The Pirate Bay in 2007. Peter Sunde, the site's spokesperson at the time, encouraged people to start their own torrent sites to make the sharing ecosystem of files is more resistant.

“Start your own torrent sites, make the Internet the hydra that it is and should be. If there are hundreds of sites, you can't close all of them, ”Sunde said. said at the time.

Later, when more and more domain names were seized and blocked, hydra was also used to explain the phenomenon where hacking sites would continue to add new hosting locations or domain names.

These powers and mirrors became the new hydra heads. Once again, it was The Pirate Bay who explicitly made this connection. in 2013 Y 2015., intertwining it with the new temporary logo of the site.

Apparently this term is now in common use in the Delhi High Court within official blocking orders. We have to admit, it sounds pretty scary and the colorful language certainly makes a rather boring lock expansion sound more special than it actually is.