Canal+ is tightening the screws on Google and Cloudflare, and their alternative DNS services. The audiovisual group, which is very keen on its sporting rights, has obtained new blocks from the Paris court for dozens of pirate sites. The platforms should appeal, but in the meantime they must respect the judgments.
Canal+ went to war against resolvers DNS. Last May, the largest of them — Google, Cisco (OpenDNS) and Cloudflare — received orders from the French courts forcing them to block access to streaming sites illegally broadcasting Champions League matches and of the Premier League. Two competitions for which Canal+ has the broadcast rights in France.
Passing of arms in court
According to the group, these alternative DNS services allow Internet users to access these websites by circumventing the traditional blocking measures imposed on access providers. All you have to do is change the DNS settings on your computer to regain access to pirate streaming streams…
Remember that DNS (domain name systems) associate an understandable name, such as the address of a website, with an IP address. Resolvers are simply DNS servers. By attacking the providers of these alternative DNS services, Canal+ has taken a further step in the fight against pirate IPTV. A step too far for Cisco, which has simply decided to no longer offer OpenDNS in France.
The story doesn't end there. As noted TorrentFreakCanal+ has restarted the legal machine against Google and CloudFlare, obtaining three new DNS blocking decisions last September and October for dozens of additional illegal sites: aliezstream.pro, livetv.lol and even crvsport.ru. In each case, the Paris court sided with the broadcaster, concluding that DNS resolvers are intermediaries that contribute to illegal streaming activity.
Google and Cloudflare obviously have no choice but to respect the court's judgment. But according to these companies, the blocking measures are disproportionate, costly and ineffective. And for good reason: you just need to use other DNS addresses, or simply a VPN, to access illegal content.
But for the court, Canal+ is within its right to use the blocking possibilities deemed appropriate. The existence of alternative solutions is not relevant in these cases. The court also believes that DNS resolvers play a role in the transmission of content and can be considered intermediaries under European laws, which the two services strongly contest.
Google and Cloudflare argue that their activities do not fall within the “transmission function” defined by European law, but the court rejected this interpretation. They therefore had to comply (they had three days to apply the blockade), but are considering appealing.
???? To not miss any news from 01net, follow us on Google News and WhatsApp.
Source :
TorrentFreak
France
TV
