Court orders Canadian ISPs to block pirate website for the first time

In a precedent-setting decision, a Federal Court judge has ordered internet service providers to block specific websites hosting copyright-infringing TV content. In a Nov. 15 decision, Judge Patrick Gleeson ordered a number of ISPs to block the websites hosting Gold TV within 15 days, the first time a Canadian court has issued such an order. In September, BCE Inc., Quebecor Inc.’s Groupe TVA, and Rogers Communications Inc. asked for a court order that would force the ISPs to block GoldTV.ca and GoldTV.biz, which sold “IPTV” subscriptions to infringing live and on-demand TV content. TekSavvy Solutions Inc. opposed the request, saying granting it would usurp the authority of the CRTC, and arguing that site-blocking is a “a draconian remedy that undercuts the legislative mandate of net neutrality.” The courts have long had the ability to issue site-blocking orders; indeed, that power was one one the reasons cited by some opponents of the proposed FairPlay coalition’s site-blocking regime. The argument was that setting up a system, ultimately rejected by the CRTC, to automatically block infringing websites was unnecessary when the option to go to the courts to ask for specific websites to be blocked exists. Friday’s decision marks the first time a court has granted such a request in Canada. “I am not convinced that any of the provisions of the Telecommunications Act, nor the fact that there is ongoing debate about the role of site blocking in Canada’s telecommunications regulatory regime, support the view that the Court should decline to exercise its discretion in this case,” judge Gleeson wrote. In the decision, Gleeson also addressed the net neutrality argument. He said he doesn’t agree with the plaintiffs that the principle of net neutrality is irrelevant in the case. But, he wrote, “I am not convinced that the principle of net neutrality or the common carrier doctrine, is to be applied in a manner that requires ISPs to facilitate unlawful conduct.” Gleeson wrote: “I am satisfied, in the face of a strong prima facie case of ongoing infringement and a draft order that seeks to limit blocking to unlawful sites and incorporates processes to address inadvertent over-blocking that neither net neutrality not freedom of expression concerns tip the balance against granting the relief sought.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Court orders Canadian ISPs to block pirate website for the first time

Broadcast | November 15, 2019

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Court orders Canadian ISPs to block pirate website for the first time

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