Blocking News International

There is much wailing and gnashing of the teeth about Murdoch's plan to charge for his content. The swine! The blaggard!

Regardless of the sanity or effectiveness of this idea - I thought it would be an interesting idea to turn the tables. What would it be like if News International were unable to scour the web for stories to rip off, comments to plunder and images to steal?

Turns out, it's rather simple.  News International owns a rather large swathe of IP addresses.

% Information related to '143.252.0.0 - 143.252.255.255'
inetnum:	 143.252.0.0 - 143.252.255.255
remarks:	 **** INFORMATION FROM ARIN OBJECT ****
remarks:	 netname: NEWS-INT-UK
descr:	   News International
descr:	   PO Box 481
descr:	   1 Virginia Street
descr:	   London E1 9BD
remarks:	 country: GB
admin-c:	 MF2311-RIPE
tech-c:	  MF2311-RIPE
remarks:	 changed: hostmaster@arin.net 19901026
remarks:	 changed: hostmaster@arin.net 19950103
remarks:	 **** INFORMATION FROM RIPE OBJECT ****
netname:	 NEWS-INT-UK
descr:	   Times Supplements Limited
country:	 GB
admin-c:	 TE960-RIPE
tech-c:	  IR135-RIPE
remarks:	 rev-srv:	ns0.newsint.co.uk ns1.newsint.co.uk

All this means that any connection originating from 143.252.*.* comes from News International.

You can add IP addresses to your .htaccess file which will simply deny them access to your site.  You could redirect them to a PayPal site demanding payment.  You could write a bit of JavaScript to shower them in annoying pop-ups.

Or you could treat them no differently from any other Internet Citizen.  The choice is yours.

Disclaimer: I'm not sure what other IP addresses they may own, and this doesn't cover anyone connecting from home, via a dongle or other mobile device.