Italy blocks Gutenberg book publishing website

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Cases of internet censorship (that affect public interest) are rarely reported in Europe. Yet, www.gutenberg.org, a book-publishing website run by a non-profit organization, has been blocked in Italy since May 2020.

In this report, we share OONI network measurement data on the ongoing blocking of www.gutenberg.org across networks in Italy.

Background

The gutenberg.org website is maintained by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF), a non-profit organization active since 1971. Micheal Hart, founder of gutenberg.org, created the project for “the storage, retrieval, and searching of what was stored in libraries”.

The mission of Project Gutenberg is simple: “To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks”, with the motto “Break Down the Bars of Ignorance and Illiteracy.” The site’s main scope is to share books and literature content when their copyright protection law terms have expired. Publishing this content on the site in a “copyright free” form allows for the distribution of verbatim or non-verbatim copies in the US.

In mid-April 2020, the FIEG (Italian Federation Editors of Journals) filed a request to AGCOM (Italian Competition Authority) to intervene in some alleged illegal operation of sharing copyright protected content (newspaper) on the Telegram platform.

The criminal prosecution started soon thereafter in cooperation with a special department (of “Guardia di Finanza”) working on privacy and online fraud. The judge assigned to the case (on 5th May 2020) requested the temporary seizure of the domain (“sequestro preventivo mediante oscuramento” ex. Art. 321 c.p.). The provision has been applied to several Telegram channels and some internet sites involved in sharing journals, books, with profit motives (personal data collection used for advertising) by the software “Teleport Ultra”, in violation of art. 16 L. 633/1941. The decree has been sent to Italian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for enforcement and by mid-May 2020, all the sites included in the list have been blocked, one of which was gutenberg.org.

Project Gutenberg has no legal representation in Italy. Only some time later did the project’s CEO acknowledge that their site was blocked in the country. Even if AIB (Italian Library Association) showed its support, the only viable option is to intervene with a formal request instructed by a lawyer to the court to review the decree.

An informal letter sent to the Guardia Di Finanza analyzed the content hosted on the Gutenberg site and identified 5 books that, according to Italian copyright law, are still protected — even if they are not according to US copyright law (as per ToS the country in which the content is shared and available).

According to US law, what has been published before 1978 has a copyright of 95 years; instead, under Italian law, copyright terms are considered expired after 70 years from the death of the author.

The current situation with the ongoing criminal lawsuit prevents access to more detailed information. It will therefore be necessary to follow up with requests for the disclosure of further information (when available) to better understand the case.

Methods

We examined the blocking of gutenberg.org in Italy through the analysis of OONI measurements collected from multiple local AS networks. We analyzed OONI measurements (from the testing of www.gutenberg.org) collected from Italy between May 2020 (when the blocking reportedly started) to August 2021. We supplemented our study with online research to understand how and why the court of Rome took the decision to block the Gutenberg website.

OONI is a free software project that aims to empower decentralized efforts in increasing transparency of internet censorship around the world. Since 2012, OONI has developed free and open source software, called OONI Probe, that can be run to measure the blocking of websites, collecting data that can potentially serve as evidence of internet censorship since it shows how, when, where, and by whom it is implemented.

As part of this study, we analyzed measurements collected from OONI’s Web Connectivity test. This test examines whether websites (included in the Citizen Lab test lists) are reachable and if they are not, it attempts to determine whether access to them is blocked by means of DNS tampering, TCP/IP blocking or by a transparent HTTP proxy. We limited our analysis to Web Connectivity measurements collected from the testing of www.gutenberg.org on different AS networks in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

Please consider that the findings are limited by the number of OONI Probe tests run by users in Italy. We only have measurements available depending on when OONI Probe users tested www.gutenberg.org in Italy, and depending on which networks these tests were performed.

Findings

OONI data shows that www.gutenberg.org presented signs of blocking on at least 7 AS networks in Italy since May 2020. Most ISPs in Italy primarily appear to block access to www.gutenberg.org by means of DNS hijacking. However, we also observe HTTP failures on some networks as well.

In the following sections, we explain how the blocking of www.gutenberg.org varies across AS networks in Italy.

Blocking methods by ISP

OONI data shows that the testing of www.gutenberg.org presented signs of blocking on multiple AS networks in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021, as illustrated through the following chart.

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Source: OONI measurements on the testing of www.gutenberg.org across AS networks in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021, https://explorer.ooni.org/search?until=2021-09-08&since=2021-08-09&domain=www.gutenberg.org&probe_cc=IT

As is evident from the above chart, www.gutenberg.org received the highest volume of testing coverage during our analysis period on Vodafone Italia (AS30722) and Fastweb (AS12874), where most measurements presented DNS based anomalies. In particular, such measurements show that access to www.gutenberg.org was blocked by means of DNS hijacking, as internet users on those networks did not receive the correct IP address for the website. Similarly, we observe a high ratio of DNS anomalies on other AS networks as well, such as Telecom Italia (AS3269) and TIM (AS16232). We also observe HTTP failures caused by connection timeouts on several other AS networks as well.

It’s worth highlighting though that the blocking of www.gutenberg.org appears to vary across AS networks in Italy, as recent measurements suggest that the site is accessible on some networks, such as Wind (AS1267). Moreover, on networks (such as Vodafone Italia) where we observe the DNS hijacking of www.gutenberg.org, we also see that some measurements are successful – likely because a different DNS resolver was used by the OONI Probe user(s) who contributed those measurements.

In the following sections, we summarize our main technical findings related to the blocking of www.gutenberg.org on 7 major ISPs in Italy based on OONI data.

Vodafone Italia (AS30722)

OONI data shows that Vodafone Italia blocks www.gutenberg.org by means of DNS hijacking.

When attempting to query the domain name www.gutenberg.org, instead of receiving the legitimate IP of the site, we received the IP address 83.224.65.170 (which belongs to Vodafone) as a response. This IP address does not listen on port 443 and therefore results in a connection timeout when attempting to connect to the site over HTTPS, as illustrated below.

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Image: Screenshot of attempting to connect to www.gutenberg.org over HTTPS on Vodafone Italia (AS30722), resulting in a connection timeout.

When accessed over HTTP, it instead returns an 404 error page without any content (as illustrated below). This means that the block is not implemented transparently.

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Image: Screenshot of attempting to connect to www.gutenberg.org over HTTP on Vodafone Italia (AS30722), resulting in an 404 error page.

It’s also interesting to highlight that the reverse pointer records (PTR) for the IP address 83.224.65.170 returns a list of all other pages which are blocked by returning this IP (as shared below). This makes it easy to enumerate all the websites which are blocked using the same technique.

PTR

Image: Reverse pointer records (PTR) for the IP address 83.224.65.170 returns a list of all other domains which are blocked by returning this IP.

Some OONI measurements collected from Vodafone Italia show that www.gutenberg.org was accessible, but that is due to the fact that in these cases the probe client has been configured to use a resolver different from the ISP provided one.

Fastweb (AS12874)

OONI data shows that Fastweb appears to be consistently blocking www.gutenberg.org by means of DNS based tampering.

Some OONI measurements indicate the site being accessible, but this is because the probe in question was configured to use a resolver that is different from the ISP provided resolver. In the cases in which the probe is properly configured to use the ISP resolver, we can see that the means by which the block is implemented is that of returning an NXDOMAIN to the DNS query for www.gutenberg.org. This is concerning because it doesn’t provide any transparency on the block being implemented, since a user will see an error message in their browser rather than a block page (which would have informed the user that access to the website is intentionally blocked).

Wind (AS1267)

For the most part, Wind does not appear to be implementing the block for www.gutenberg.org. OONI measurements, for example, show that even though the probe is configured to use the ISP provided resolver, we do not observe the blocking of the website.

We only have a few measurements that are indicative of blocking and, in those cases, the reason for the failure appears to be a TLS certificate validation error, which is a sign that they might be doing a TLS man-in-the-middle (MITM) to implement the blocking of the site.

TIM (AS16232)

Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) appears to block www.gutenberg.org by means of DNS hijacking. Specifically, when attempting to query www.gutenberg.org they will return the IP address of the loopback interface (127.0.0.1) resulting in connection errors. This is concerning because to an internet user it will not be clear that the site is being intentionally blocked and might wrongly attribute the inaccessibility of the site to poor network conditions.

As part of our analysis, only one OONI measurement showed that the site was accessible, but this was due to the probe being configured with a different resolver from the ISP resolver.

Telecom Italia (AS3269)

Similarly to TIM, Telecom Italia also blocks www.gutenberg.org by returning the IP address 127.0.0.1 in the DNS query answer, resulting in a blocking that is not transparent to the user.

Tiscali (AS8612)

Tiscali blocks www.gutenberg.org by means of DNS based interference. Similarly to Fastweb, they return an NXDOMAIN when looking up www.gutenberg.org, which is not transparent to the end user.

Iliad (AS29447)

Similarly to TIM and Telecom Italia, Iliad blocks www.gutenberg.org by means of DNS based interference, returning the IP address 127.0.0.1, which is not transparent to the end user.

Additional measurement analysis between May 2020 to August 2021

In this section, we share additional observations from analysis provided by one of our community members: Davide Brunello (independent researcher). Davide analyzed OONI Web Connectivity measurements collected from the testing of www.gutenberg.org in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

The following chart illustrates the volume of monthly OONI measurements collected from the testing of www.gutenberg.org on different AS networks in Italy between May 2020 (when the block started) to August 2021.

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Source: Volume of monthly OONI measurements (on the testing of www.gutenberg.org) collected from different ISPs in Italy each month between May 2020 to August 2021.

As is evident through the above chart, www.gutenberg.org received the highest volume in testing coverage in June 2021, while most measurements (throughout the analysis period) were collected from Vodafone Italia and Fastweb. The diversity of AS coverage (as it pertains to the OONI Probe testing of www.gutenberg.org) enabled us to compare the blocking of www.gutenberg.org across different ISPs in Italy, as discussed in previous sections of this report.

Overall (between May 2020 to August 2021), 619 OONI measurements were collected from 19 unique ASNs (corresponding to 19 different ISPs) in Italy, with most measurements collected from Vodafone Italia (54%), Fastweb SpA (26%), Consortium GARR (7%), and Telecom Italia S.p.A. (5%).

The following chart characterizes the total volume of OONI measurements (from the testing of www.gutenberg.org) collected across AS networks in Italy, distinguishing between those that presented anomalies (and further characterizing those as “DNS” and “HTTP-failure”) and those that didn’t (“none”).

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Source: Total of OONI measurements (from the testing of www.gutenberg.org) by blocking type across ISPs in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

The characterization of the blocking type (as illustrated through the above chart) is based on OONI’s Web Connectivity methodology, which was used for the testing of www.gutenberg.org. OONI’s Web Connectivity test is designed to measure the blocking of a URL by first attempting to identify the DNS resolver used by the OONI Probe user, perform a DNS lookup for the domain in question, establish a TCP connection to the IP address(es) identified during the DNS lookup, and send an HTTP GET request for the content of the webpage. These steps are automatically performed over two vantage points: the local network of the OONI Probe user and a “control” (non-censored) network. If the results from both networks are the same, the tested URL is flagged as “accessible”. If, however, the results differ, the tested URL is flagged as “anomalous” (which provides an indication of potential blocking).

Based on OONI’s Web Connectivity methodology, there are 4 possible anomalies that can occur:

As part of his analysis of Web Connectivity measurements (on the testing of www.gutenberg.org), Davide identified 3 types of measurements:

Davide notes that out of the total number of measurements, 58% presented DNS anomalies, while 3% presented HTTP failures. 43% of measurements collected from Vodafone Italia (where a total of 333 measurements were collected) are annotated as “none” (indicating that www.gutenberg.org was accessible), but as mentioned in previous sections, this seems to be the result of OONI Probe users using different DNS resolvers (instead of the one provided by the ISP, which implements the block).

The following chart provides a further breakdown of OONI measurements, limiting them to those that presented anomalies.

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Source: OONI measurements (from the testing of www.gutenberg.org) by blocking type across ISPs in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

As can be seen through the graph, the majority (97%) of anomalous measurements on Vodafone Italia presented signs of DNS based interference, while a few (3%) presented HTTP failures. On Fastweb, 99% of anomalous measurements presented signs of DNS based tampering, while only 1% of measurements presented HTTP failures. On Wind, all (100%) anomalous measurements presented HTTP failures, but we observe limited testing coverage on this network, while all other measurements were successful (as illustrated through the previous chart).

This data may be helpful to demonstrate how the blocking of www.gutenberg.org (in compliance with the criminal court of Rome) has been implemented across AS networks in Italy. As is evident through the previous charts, most ISPs in Italy primarily block access to www.gutenberg.org by means of DNS tampering.

The following chart shares the volume of daily measurements that presented anomalies on 19 ISPs in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Source: Daily anomalous OONI measurements (from the testing of www.gutenberg.org) across ISPs in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

The fact that we observe consistent anomalies over a relatively long timeline – on many local networks – provides a strong signal of blocking (reducing the likelihood of false positives that could have occurred from temporary transient network failures).

In the first days after the decree became effective (5th May 2021), the number of OONI measurements reached its peak on different networks; after 1 year it has been concentrated on certain networks (Fastweb SpA, Vodafone Italia S.p.A.) on a regular basis.

The following chart presents the number of daily OONI measurements that presented DNS anomalies on different networks in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Source: Daily OONI measurements (from the testing of www.gutenberg.org) that presented DNS anomalies across ISPs in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

Most anomalous measurements presented signs of DNS tampering. Meanwhile, a number of measurements (collected from many local networks) also showed that www.gutenberg.org was accessible at the time of testing, as illustrated below.

Gutenberg blocked in Italy

Source: Daily OONI measurements (from the testing of www.gutenberg.org) that presented DNS anomalies across ISPs in Italy between May 2020 to August 2021.

As discussed previously, the accessibility of measurements reflects the variance in how censorship is implemented across networks in Italy, as well as the fact that some OONI Probe users used different DNS resolvers (thereby circumventing the DNS blocks),

Conclusion

Since May 2020, access to the Gutenberg book publishing website has been blocked in Italy (in compliance with a decree of the court of Rome) over copyright violation. The criminal lawsuit is currently ongoing and that does not permit access to relevant documents that would help with further understanding the background and situation that resulted in the blocking of www.gutenberg.org.

OONI measurement analysis shows that access to www.gutenberg.org is blocked on at least 7 AS networks in Italy. Most ISPs primarily appear to block access to www.gutenberg.org by means of DNS tampering. However, in implementing DNS hijacking, different ISPs serve different results to users. Some ISPs (like Fastweb and Tiscali) return an NXDOMAIN, others (like TIM, Telecom Italia, and Iliad) return the IP address 127.0.0.1, while Vodafone Italia returns the IP address 83.224.65.170 (for HTTPS connections, this results in connection timeout errors; for HTTP connections, this returns a 404 error page). On other networks (like Wind), recent measurements suggest that www.gutenberg.org is accessible.

Regardless of what is returned in the DNS response, what all ISPs in Italy (at least those included in this study) appear to have in common is the lack of transparency of the fact that access to www.gutenberg.org is intentionally blocked. When internet users in Italy attempt to access www.gutenberg.org, they view an error message which (unlike a block page) does not communicate that access to the site is blocked. Instead, internet users may think that the website is temporarily down, or that they’re unable to access it due to network performance issues.

As the necessity and proportionality surrounding the blocking of www.gutenberg.org remains quite unclear, further OONI Probe testing is needed to keep monitoring the accessibility of the site, and to continue collecting open data on its blocking.