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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

For those in countries that censor the Internet, such as the UK where I live, this page basically says what Anna's Archive is (very superficially), shares some useful URLs to accessing the data, asks for donations, and says an "enterprise-level donation" can get you access to a SFTP server with their files on it.

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It is also censored in Germany.

You’re welcomed with this message:

Diese Webseite ist aus urheberrechtlichen Gründen nicht verfügbar. Zu den Hintergründen informieren Sie sich bitte hier.

https://cuii.info/ueber-uns/

I can access the site just fine from Germany. Tried Vodafone and Congstar but I don't use their DNS servers.

In other news, Project Gutenberg not completely censored in Germany. Well done, Germany. https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html

And the works that previously had lead to Project Gutenberg being unavailable from Germany IP addresses will go into public domain in 2027.

This is only done at the DNS level, so using a different DNS (such as Quad9) solves that issue. For background info, I can recommend [1, 2].

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxmu25mUZgg [2]: https://cuiiliste.de/

how can this be done at the dns level? shouldn't ssl certificates prevent third party content from being shown in the browser?

Well, you get the warning, but as long as HSTS is not active, you can still click on "Accept the risk and continue" …

[EDIT:] Just checked a bit closer, they are using an LetsEncrypt cert for "cuii.telefonica.de", which is obviously the wrong domain, but as I said above, as long as HSTS is not active for "annas-archive.li", you can still bypass via the button.

My ISP currently makes them not resolve (with scary sounding domains):

  ; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> @192.168.1.254 annas-archive.li
  ; (1 server found)
  ;; global options: +cmd
  ;; Got answer:
  ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 18716
  ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

  ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
  ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
  ;; QUESTION SECTION:
  ;annas-archive.li.  IN A

  ;; ANSWER SECTION:
  annas-archive.li. 845 IN CNAME www.ukispcourtorders.co.uk.
  www.ukispcourtorders.co.uk. 511 IN CNAME ukispblk.vo.llnwd.net.
  ukispblk.vo.llnwd.net. 845 IN CNAME ukispblk.vo.llnwd.net.edgesuite.net.

  ;; Query time: 3 msec
  ;; SERVER: 192.168.1.254#53(192.168.1.254)
  ;; WHEN: Wed Feb 18 12:06:25 GMT 2026
  ;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 169

They redirect to a different url.

It does. The browser won't load the content because it detects your connection was tampered with.

If the censoring is at the DNS level, can the admin please replace the domain name in the url with the ip address to which it should resolve? Thank you.

Your country's broken internet is your problem. If you are having DNS queries censored then change your DNS resolver on your client side. If you still get intercepted look into DoH.

I never understood why Quad9, which is based in Switzerland, can get away with not applying the Swiss censorship to their DNS servers.

Yay, MITM in the wild :)

I got it on my phone, but not with my local ISP.

Stop using your ISP's DNS. Switch to a DNS provider that doesn't censor content.

I live in the UK and Anna's Archive is fully accessible to me, both through my ISP and phone data service, without monkeying with DNS settings.

Which ISP please?

its possible your browser used DoH. Some have started shipping it by default to encrypt DNS traffic (and use their own resolvers of course). Or maybe your ISP doesn't care

That's exactly it. Good catch

Interesting, I have no issues accessing it in the UK. I use Vodafone broadband or cellular, both fine.

I'm on Vodafone in Spain and I see

> Error code: PR_CONNECT_RESET_ERROR

If I try the http version, I get redirected to https://bloqueadaseccionsegunda.cultura.gob.es/ (which also fails with PR_CONNECT_RESET_ERROR).

If it wasn't enough that half the internet gets unusable whenever there is football on TV (which is fucking stupid), now we're also getting rid of free (text!) information it seems.

I'm on O2 in Spain and loads fine for me. That's interesting

Vodafone here seems more eager than other ISPs to block things, for some reason. I've had Telefonica, Orange, Jazztel and Movistar before and seemingly they weren't as eager, or there is a lot more blocking the last ~2 years which just happen to align with when we switched to Vodafone.

That’s not stupid. That’s good because Cloudflare opposed it and Cloudflare is a Trump.

Sorry? I don't care what Cloudflare opposes, that half of the websites I use stop working during La Liga matches + Vodafone apparently goes above and beyond to block sites for knowledge sucks, regardless if CF or Trump are involved or not.

Appears that UK EE has it blocked too. Tried this morning waiting for the train in to work.

For Virgin Media, redirects to https://assets.virginmedia.com/site-blocked.html

> Virgin Media has received an order from the High Court requiring us to prevent access to this site.

Works perfecty fine, I'm in the UK. Get a better ISP ;)

Just checked and it's blocked for me if I turn off my VPN - am on VirginMedia.

uno.uk have a policy of not censoring things unless they absolutely have to. they're supporters of the Open Rights Group, and they're the only residential isp I've found that give me a /29 ipv4 block on the standard order form.

they're a small outfit, been with them for years and on first name terms with the main support guy. great for the kind of nerds who prefer you to skip the flow chart if you and then the logs from your router and hint that you know what you're doing.

not affiliated, just satisfied.

Umm... I'm in the UK and I can see the page fine. Why would you expect this page to be censored?

I am in the UK and I can't see it unless I use a VPN. I get

This site can’t provide a secure connection annas-archive.li sent an invalid response. ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

Change the URL to HTTP and you should get your ISP's block message (Virgin Media)

In the UK I'm currently getting:

Hmmm… can't reach this page

Check if there is a typo in annas-archive.li.

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive#United_Kingdo...

>In December 2024, the UK Publishers Association won an order from the High Court of Justice requiring major ISPs to block Anna's Archive and other copyright-infringing sites, extending a list of sites blocked since 2015 under section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act

I'm going to guess the key differentiator here is "major ISPs". I can see the page fine using a Zen Internet connection, but from my phone, which uses EE, it's blocked.

I can access it from both my mobile and fiber connections, different ISPs. I'm with smaller players so maybe that's it.

Also in the UK and can also see it fine.

I wonder if it's blocked simply by DNS manipulation and therefore only people using the ISP DNS have issues.

Others have already posted, but the biggest domestic British ISPs block a variety of things, like SciHub, Libgen, Pirate Bay, or Anna's Archive. Coverage varies a lot though, so I assume ISPs have some discretion and enforcement is patchy.

This isn't the case for me with Anna's Archive or Sci-Hub. I use the biggest ISP, and both are fully accessible.

Implementation of this stuff must be very patchy then as both are off on my top 5 provider until I use a VPN. Which makes me wonder why any of the ISPs bother blocking at all, if they can just pick and choose?

I've just seen there is a court order against the .org site, going back to 2024. So presumably some ISPs are more proactive about extending the ban to backup domains.

I'm assuming BT? If so then their blocking is DNS based and if you are not using their DNS then they will block these sites

Works for me in the UK

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