Rogers and TVA secure site-blocking order against illegal baseball live streams

The Federal Court has issued a site-blocking order against several alleged unauthorized MLB live streams, continuing its crackdown on online piracy. The court order, issued by Justice Roger Lafrenière on Tuesday, was granted to Rogers Communications Inc.’s sports and media subsidiary and Quebecor Inc.’s Groupe TVA. It requires ten third-party ISPs to block several IP addresses providing illegal streams of the baseball games. The pirate streamers were also instructed to “immediately cease providing unauthorized access to live streams of MLB Live Games in Canada.” Third-parties are to immediately begin blocking access to the IP addresses during each MLB live game window during the 2023 season and will be given notice to unblock them once the game is over. Those that cannot do so immediately will be given seven days to start blocking access. Canada saw its first site-blocking order back in 2019 over the NHL. Broadcasters BCE Inc., TVA, and Rogers asked for a court order that would force ISPs to block GoldTV.ca and GoldTV.biz, which sold “IPTV” subscriptions to infringing live and on-demand TV content. That order was renewed last November for the 2022-2023 season. Bell also secured one to block illegal streams of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Like other recent site-blocking orders, dynamic blocking will be used to carry it out, meaning the plaintiffs, Rogers and TVA, will appoint an agent to identify and maintain a rolling list of IP addresses that the third-parties are to target. Third-party ISPs are not responsible for verifying if the IP addresses given to them by the agent are correct, but they can temporarily suspend blocking in cases of potential over-blocking, security threats, or Internet service maintenance. The plaintiffs must compensate the third-parties for the costs of complying with the order, up to a maximum of $50,000, along with any “reasonably incurred loss” resulting from a third party complaint or similar proceeding. According to the order, the defendants and anyone else who claims to be affected by the site-blocking can bring a motion to change the order if it affects their ability to access or distribute “non-infringing content.” The order will expire at the end of the last game of the 2023 MLB season, or until a final judgment is made on the plaintiffs’ claims, whichever comes first.– Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Rogers and TVA secure site-blocking order against illegal baseball live streams

Court | July 19, 2023

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Rogers and TVA secure site-blocking order against illegal baseball live streams

Court | July 19, 2023

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