Nhentai ‘Pirate’ Site Wants Court to Quash ‘Improper’ Cloudflare DMCA Subpoena
Copyright holders' representatives frequently use DMCA subpoenas to compel online intermediaries to share personal details of alleged pirate site operators. Cloudflare is a popular target for these requests but according to the people behind popular adult site nhentai.net, DMCA subpoenas shouldn't apply to 'mere conduit' intermediaries.
Internet infrastructure service Cloudflare serves millions of customers around the globe, providing various connectivity and security features.
When it comes to DMCA takedown requests, the company has always drawn a clear line; when it doesn’t store any content for a customer, it will simply forward DMCA takedown requests to the customer’s hosting company.
Ideally, rightsholders would like Cloudflare to take a more active stance. Since popular pirate sites, including The Pirate Bay, use the CDN service, they argue it would be helpful if Cloudflare disabled access to infringing content though its platform.
Cloudflare, however, sees itself as a ‘mere conduit’ service that merely passes on bits. This means that it is not required to take action against third-party infringements directly, unless content is permanently stored on its servers, which is rare.
