Bell, Rogers, Quebecor apply for extended site-blocking in GoldTV

A trio of Canada's biggest broadcasters has asked the Federal Court for a renewal of Canada's first ever site-blocking order, two years after the original blocking order was first granted in a precedent setting case. In a Friday court filing, BCE Inc., Quebecor Inc., and Rogers Communications Inc. sought to extend the order that requires third-party internet service providers Bragg Communications Inc.‘s Eastlink, Cogeco Inc., Distributel Ltd., Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp., and TekSavvy Solutions Inc. to block a number of different domain names leading to a pirate IPTV site known as GoldTV. The original blocking order was set to expire on Nov. 15. In a notice of motion for a renewed blocking order filed in the Federal Court Friday, the Bell, Rogers, and Quebecor argue that unless "the original order is renewed in respect of the GoldTV.biz service, the plaintiffs will continue to suffer irreparable harm and the operators of the GoldTV.biz service will continue to evade the above mentioned interlocutory injunction order with complete impunity." The court first granted the blocking order in Nov. 2019 over the objections of TekSavvy, who then unsuccessfully appealed the case to the Federal Court of Appeal, and in August applied to bring the case to the Supreme Court. In the Friday request for a renewal of the order, the three broadcasters also seek permission to file more "streamlined" affidavits in support of regular requests to update the domains identified for blocking, as well as a request to keep the actual domains themself confidential until the blocking orders have been implemented. The plaintiffs are also asking for permission to abandon the original lawsuit against the anonymous operators of GoldTV, a proceeding in which the blocking order is an interlocutory injunction. “The plaintiffs have been unable to identify the operators of the GoldTV services, and they have not yet appeared on the court record. In that context, it would be futile to attempt to obtain a final judgment against the defendants at this stage," the notice of motion reads. -- Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Bell, Rogers, Quebecor apply for extended site-blocking in GoldTV

Broadcast | October 26, 2021

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Bell, Rogers, Quebecor apply for extended site-blocking in GoldTV

Broadcast | October 26, 2021

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