How to access a pirate site if you get blocked

You’ve discovered that foreign pirate sites are illegally distributing your content, but when you go there to see what’s going on, you hit a wall. “Access denied,” the screen says. These sites block all visitors outside their home country, leaving you, the rights holder, in the lurch. How is this possible? Why are they doing this? And most importantly, how do you get to them? The answer is technology that is available to you: VPN.

A game of hide-and-seek

Pirate sites are not just a collection of lazy people who want to share free movies. They’re organised operations that profit from ads, donates or subscriptions - and they know their activities are illegal. To keep themselves alive, they play a game of hide-and-seek with rights holders like you. One of their tricks is to block access from countries where they don’t wish to get attention. For example, if a site is exclusively for users of a particular country, they block access from any other country. Why do they do this? Because they are afraid. They know that if you were able to access their site, you would detect the presence of your content and take action. By blocking you, they keep you at bay and protect their business. It’s like putting up a virtual fence and saying, “Don’t come here, nothing happens here.”

Digital passport

You might be thinking, “How do they even know where I’m coming from?” The answer is in something called an IP address. Think of an IP address as a digital passport for your computer or phone. When you connect to the internet, this “passport” tells websites where you are - for example, “Czech Republic” or “Slovakia”. Pirate websites, often with the help of tools like Cloudflare, check this passport. Services like Cloudflare are like a border patrol: it looks at your IP address, compares it to its list of “undesirable countries”, and if you’re blacklisted, it just won’t let you in. A message like “Access denied” or “This site is not available in your area” will then appear on the screen. Technically, it’s simple: their servers have a set of rules that say, “Only let in those with an IP address from our country, block the rest.” And because they know that people like you - rights holders - could be a threat, they set up these rules to keep you out.

How to outsmart their patrol

That’s where a VPN - a virtual private network - comes in. Think of it as a magic cloak that lets you change your digital passport. When you use a VPN, your computer first connects to a server in another country, like the one where the pirate site is based. This server then “talks” to the site for you and says, “I’m from there, let me in!” The site sees the VPN server’s IP address, not your real one, and thinks you’re local. And suddenly you’re in.

How to do it step by step

1. Examples are NordVPN or Surfshark. Choose a plan - longer subscriptions are better - and download the app. It works on your computer, phone and tablet, so choose what works for you.
2. Open the app and check the list of servers. If you know where the pirate site is coming from, select that country. If you don’t know, try a few options - like countries with weak piracy laws like Russia, Ukraine, or Malaysia.
3. Connect. In a few seconds, your “digital passport” will change and you will look like you are in the selected country.
4. Try reloading the pirate page. If it works, congratulations - you’re in! If not, try a different server, country or try turn on “dedicated IP” feature.