Antivirus software starts blocking pirate websites

http://torrentfreak.com/anti-virus-pirate-block-140204/

 

This is not what an AV software should do. It's out of their scope. Their job is to detect whether or not a file contains possible malicious code hidden inside. Pirated or not is none of their business.

 

If it remains as an option then I don't see the problem. If you do not like it just UNcheck it.

 

I want my AV to detect malicious software, content and websites. Pirated software and content does not fit into my definition of malware. But if this is optional and you have to opt-in then it shouldn't be that bad.

hqsec

 

How it is handled... opt-in or opt-out or explicit ask/answer... would be an important factor in determining its legitimacy.

Seems to me there is a good chance of supposedly infringing files/content being located on the same servers as supposedly non-infringing files/content, and in order to differentiate between the two full URLs would frequently have to be examined. I don't know if Dr. Web product web-filtering already falls into the "phones home full URL information" category, but even if hasn't in the past, I would re-examine it due to this "feature" alone.

Edit: If a company has determined that files/content "claimed to violate copyright" are something it is going to detect and block or warn about, it wouldn't be a stretch for it to [eventually] perform such checks on the files (including some non-PE files, obviously) you already have on your system. I have not seen an indication that Dr. Web is intending to go that far. However, the slippery slope is always of concern. IOW, when any company takes a step in this type of direction, I'd say all aspects of their product require closer scrutiny going forward. Including, where cloud lookups are used, how those work and for what types of files they are done.

 

Previous discussion: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=2281662

 

Agreed. I could see them adding it as an option, but I would hope it would not be a default option. Either way, it's not their business and I don't purchase software to nanny me.

 

I'm sure they are spinning this as a good preventative measure against infections, but I really think this is more self-serving than anything else. It's all about keeping you from pirating licenses and keygens. On a related note, I ended up abandoning Comodo Secure DNS for exactly this reason. Quite few pirated content/streaming sites were being blocked. Even if you insisted it was fine to proceed, Comodo refused to budge. Hello Norton DNS. If they start to block, I'll work my away around the list.

 

Well said.

 

This is not a big deal to me since I don't use Dr. Web anymore. However, I don't want my antivirus software (or my web browsers) to block any websites, even known malicious ones - I what absolutely nothing blocked, so I always have any website blocking disabled. As long as it can be disabled in Dr. Web then I don't see a problem with it.

If any sort of website blocking was not able to be disabled in an antivirus then I would not use that antivirus. Right now, I'm quite happy to be antivirus free.

 

A good feature, that could prevent people from possible criminal lawsuits in the future by randomly visiting and downloading from a warez webpage some copyright material.

 

Yeah because the people doing that clearly don't know what they are doing and need to be protected from themselves, right..?

 

Here in the Netherlands, it's perfectly legal to visit a torrent site and download a copy of a movie/music DVD/CD you own. Downloading is OK, uploading is an offense though.
So, are AV's going to be warning region-specific? "Downloading in NL using this torrent is legal but uploading is not"? Will their legal team react with updates when local law changes?
Like GrafZeppelin wrote, it's not what an AV should do.

 

Like I said before...

 

I can see this 'feature' being more useful for enterprise/business environments and parental control purposes.

 

I don't see the problem here. Right now this is only a feature of Dr. Web, so it's not an issue if you use any of the many other antiviruses. Secondly, if you are using Dr. Web, it can be disabled.

I too don't want websites blocked (in my case I don't want any website blocked), but as long as the blocking is optional, then I don't see it as being an issue.