Sports Rightsholders Want an EU Blacklist for 'Piracy' Hosting Providers * TorrentFreak

Sports Rightsholders Want an EU Blacklist for ‘Piracy’ Hosting Providers

The European Commission is reviewing the Copyright Directive, with a legislative proposal for a ‘better copyright environment’ to follow next year.

As part of this process, the Commission launched a public consultation, inviting rightsholders, intermediaries, and other stakeholders to weigh in.

We previously reported that the submission of European ISPs argued that rightsholders should be held accountable when site-blocking orders result in avoidable overblocking. The same submission also warned against IP-address blocking, as that could more easily affect legitimate services.

Blacklist for the ‘European Internet’

Not all stakeholders share this cautious attitude. In fact, many rightsholders believe that the European Commission could do more to block pirate sites and services. For example, by facilitating the creation of an EU blacklist for rogue hosting providers.

The blacklist idea is proposed in the submission of broadcaster beIN Sports, which holds sports media rights across several continents. The company specifically argues for broader blocking powers, not narrower ones.

BeIN’s proposal goes beyond IP-address blocking and suggests creating a blacklist of problematic hosting providers. These companies can be identified by their autonomous system number (ASN), which is a collection of connected IP-addresses.

"beIN proposes that the Commission should establish a means for rights owners to report offshore noncompliant hosting providers, identified by their ASNs," beIN writes.

"A competent authority would assess these providers based on criteria such as failure to comply with takedown requests, involvement in illegal content, non-compliance with legal obligations, and location outside the EU."

From beIN’s submission

Blocking the Tubes

BeIN envisions a European blacklist that would be enforced by ICT providers which would cover data centers, transit providers, internet exchanges, ISPs, among others. These companies would be required to block the associated traffic, with the goal to keep these rogue providers out of the European Internet ecosystem.

"‘Designated providers’ IP addresses and ASNs would be placed in a public database, which compromises [sic] a ‘blacklist’. European ICT providers would then be under a legal obligation to stop providing services to, or transmitting data from, these identified entities, thereby limiting their ability to operate within the European internet ecosystem," the submission reads.

The Internet is a global network, which typically doesn’t stop at the European borders, so these measures could potentially introduce new overblocking concerns. However, beIN stresses that it is needed to curb online piracy.

The company’s vision is supported by the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA), which also represents other sports rightsholders, including the Premier League, LaLiga, DAZN, Sky and Viaplay. Like its member beIN, AAPA’s submission explicitly mentions blocking hosting providers on the network level

"Provide a regulatory means for a competent authority, on application of rights owners, to designate ASNs and IP ranges associated with off-shore non-compliant hosting providers," AAPA notes.

"This information should then be communicated to European Information and Communication Technology (ICT) providers, who would be obliged to cease carrying traffic from, and otherwise deny services to the designated ASNs and IP ranges."

Porn Industry Agrees

The ASN blacklist proposal isn’t limited to sports and broadcast interests. Adult content producer Aylo, the company behind Pornhub and brands such as Brazzers and Reality Kings, filed its own submission backing a similar ASN blacklist.

Aylo proposes a central European blocking scheme. This would include a framework where an appropriate authority can "designate the ASNs and IP ranges of offshore non-compliant hosts."

In addition to the European blacklist for rogue hosting providers, rightsholders also made various other suggestions. For example, beIN asked for a strict 30-minute takedown window for hosting companies, real-time dynamic blocking orders, and "know your business customer" obligations for key Internet infrastructure companies.

Whether any of these recommendations will be picked up has yet to be seen. However, the submissions show a clear divergence between rightsholders demanding tougher measures on the one hand, versus intermediaries cautioning against overbroad blocking powers.

A copy of beIN’s submission to the call for evidence is available here (pdf), AAPA’s version can be found here (pdf), and Aylo’s copy is here (pdf).

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