What follows has been posted in various other threads and has been repeated in IRC - but I thought it was probably an OK idea to post it all together in one place if only so I could point them to it - anyway:
As far as we have been able to work out someone has informed and organisation in the UK called the Internet Watch Foundation http://www.iwf.org.uk/ of our little place on the net and they have deemed it to be unacceptable due to either race hate OR childporn... probably both. They have place ONE SPECIFIC URL on a block list.
Seemingly NTL and BT subscribe to this block list to different degrees (although oddly some people are still getting through from at least NTL not sure about BT). The URL they are blocking is the main /b/ http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html one which is why you are seeing a 404/403 on that one, but are still capable of seeing links within /b/.
There are quite a few ways to get around this, the two that I employ when Im on my work BT line is by using the IP address of the of the /b/ server, so then the URL would be: http://66.207.165.178/b/imgboard.html - this also works for NTL users. NTL users can also just add a '?' mark to the end of the normal URL to get around it thus: http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html?
You can also use proxies and tunnelling an other crap, such as http//securebar.secure/...
or installing your own copy of squid maybe.
BT users only are currently finding them selves banned completely from the img.4chan servers, I have no idea what that is about as I dont think anyones said.
Are BT/NTL logging failed connects to the boards? No idea. How long is this gonna last? No idea. Is there anyway to ge the block lifted? Having read the IWFs complaints procedure... only if you want the police at your door if its still found to be CPy.
I think thats it, be brave /b/tards. You can get through this.
D.
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Anonymous2006-06-15 19:07
As I mentioned in an earlier post - don't bother using secure-tunnel, as some CP poster has got that one banned until the 28th of June, so the rest of us can't use it (thanks pedo).
As for the reason for the ban, I did some digging and basically it's boiled down to CP, as racism is only bannable for a UK-based site.
It seems that different parts of the country have different levels of ban, or even none at all - as BT/NTL don't seem to have an organised strategy for blocking at the moment.
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Anonymous2006-06-15 22:31
i was never aware i lived in such a police state before ;/
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Anonymous2006-06-15 22:54
>>3
I wonder how it's possible not to notice? Ever been watching news? UK has been hellhole police state for years and it has been just getting worse each year. Not limited to internet.
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Anonymous2006-06-15 23:14
>>4
i dont watch tv, all the news i read i get from links sent by friends/on message boards
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Anonymous2006-06-16 8:09
Change your http proxy to webcache.bt.net:8080
This webcache doesn't use the same settings as the default webcaches, it is not banned from img and /b/ is not blocked. Also, it makes rapidshare slightly more usable; it still thinks you're about a thousand different people, but it does allow you to download, which the default proxies do not.
Is this related to how BT is banned from all of img?
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Anonymous2006-06-16 15:02
I'm pretty certain moot got pissed with being declared a source of cp, and banned those ISPs as a means to have as many people as possible bitch until the block on /b/ was revoked.
So, do your part, don't just use this proxy; bitch at your ISP as well.
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Anonymous2006-06-16 15:24
>>10
Word from people who have called their ISPs regarding the blocks (not the 4chan banning, thats something different and only to do with BT users) have been told its nothing to do with them and is to do with UK Trading Standards - basically the Internet Watch Foundation...
The other main reason that people may not wanna push it too much is because you're basically arguing your right to view CP (in the ISPs eyes) - the fact that its a 'random' image board is lost.
The last thing I read about the BT 4chan ban was that it may be a cache somewhere thats redirecting to the ban page... makes vague sense - no idea whose problem it is though. Use the fix >>6 mentioned an its all fine.
freedom of speech is dead.
would using that TOR shit that all the pedos were using allow me to connect to 4chan?
i'm kinda bored of not being able to post on the banned boards.
I'm using BT, but thanks to this, i'm switching ISP as soon as i can.
Thanks for the info - so BT are being even shittier than we thought, and have now blocked /b/, /r/, /s/ and /t/. Wow.
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Reddy2006-06-17 6:24
I'm with BT and get the banned message when i try and get on /s/, when i tried to get on /b/ it just said forbidden.
I guess it must be BT faggetry, or a mod who snapped or somethnig with rando-bans.
So 4chan screwing us brits from the other side to?.
Jesus christ, cant believe some over-sensitive peice of horse shit is so whingey they can ruin it for tons of folk who dont even know them and want nothing to do with them.
Surely thats the greatest curse on modern PC thuggery society, even the most distant un-known stranger with sensitivity issue's can fuck things up for tons of complete strangers who dont know them and have no interest in them.
"If your ISP is BT Internet, it appears that they are categorically redirecting you to this page. For the time being we are unable to do anything about this. You may want to contact them for further questions."
I call bullshit. Connecting to img.4chan.org and issuing a request for /b/ returns exactly the same response as if we are really banned - same server version + extensions, same redirect code .. everything!
I doubt BT would go to such lengths to redirect to a ban page in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, so it seems to me that this is something the mods are doing just to piss us off.
You're doing it wrong - you need to compare the ban redirect
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Anonymous2006-06-18 18:13
>>6
You sir, recieve great thanks. I've been suffering from a lack of /b/ under BT's oppression, and you have solved my problems. And Rapidshare now works for me too!
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Anonymous2006-06-18 21:12
If we have the UK thinking that 4chan is a haven for CP, should we be worried in the USA? Call me paranoid, but I don't wanna get caught in a CP dragnet.
Yeah. You did. In light of your failure, you should TEACH ME THE WAYS OF QUOTING!
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Shirox2006-06-19 4:26 (sage)
I'm not suprised something like this happened to /b/, with all the damn reposters causing a havok.
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Anonymous2006-06-19 11:17
u all failed
lol
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Anonymous2006-06-19 15:55
FUCK YOU, 4CHAN, FOR BANNING US FROM IMG.4CHAN.ORG AND BLAMING IT ON BT
**FUCK YOU**
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Anonymous2006-06-19 17:14
>>25
The IWF say that they find out where TEH EVIL CP SITE is hosted then send email to appropriate anti-CP organisations in that country. Given that /b/ has not shut down, whoever those organisations were obviously shook their heads sadly at IWF's complete failure to understand what a moderated anonymous imageboard is then ignored them.
So no, I wouldn't worry.
As a British Anonymous, I grow more depressed for the shitty state of my country every day. Our government is in many ways worse than the Bush administration when it comes to removing our basic civil liberties every chance it gets. The IWF is supposedly an independent "industry body" but in reality has close ties to the state through police partnership and the government's control and monitoring of ISPs (data retention article etc.) Today they block /b/, tommorow they could block legitimate political dissidents and whistleblowers because they're "terrorists" and "threats to national security". Or whatever the hell else they feel like.