Court Expands Google and Cloudflare DNS Blocking to Combat Piracy
A highly controversial court order that required Cisco, Cloudflare, and Google to poison DNS earlier this year was just the beginning. To further combat sports piracy, broadcaster Canal+ sought several follow-up orders. Cisco had discontinued its OpenDNS service in France due to the legal restrictions, so only Google and Cloudflare put up a defense, but without the desired result.
In May, the Paris Judicial Court ordered Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to block access to several pirate websites by poisoning their DNS.
The order, issued under Article L.333-10 of the French Sports Code, compelled the tech giants to prevent users from accessing unauthorized streams of Champions League and Premier League matches.
Applicant Canal+ argued that the alternative DNS resolvers allowed people to bypass the “regular” blocking measures implemented by internet providers.
