Federal Court grants site-blocking order against pirate NHL, NBA, Premier League live streams

Broadcasters that hold the rights to televise live sporting events including the NHL, NBA, and Premier League have secured an order from the Federal Court requiring internet service providers to block access to a rolling list of IP addresses associated with illegal live streams of the games. The decision, issued July 9, granted a joint application from companies including Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., Quebecor Inc.’s Groupe TVA, and FuboTV Inc. The “dynamic” blocking order will allow the rightsholders to appoint an agent to identify and maintain a list of IP addresses that internet providers are to target. These target servers are to be blocked during all National Hockey League games in the 2023-2024 season, all National Basketball Association pre-season games featuring the Toronto Raptors, all regular season NBA games from the 2023-2024 to the 2025-2026 seasons, and all Premier League football matches for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons. An amendment was quickly issued three days later to include the UEFA Euro 2024 football championship match, which took place on Sunday. Judge Andrew Little gave rightsholders the ability to continue to update the list of live sports games they want protected from pirate streamers. This flexibility will allow them to add copyrights that did not exist or were not included in the application before Little's decision. Each broadcaster is able to file up to two motions to the court amending the list of protected sporting events, as long as they can prove that they have exclusive broadcasting rights and that pirates are likely to infringe on them. Little explained in his decision that the two-motion limit was set “to avoid a proliferation of motions,” and that any additional motions will need to be filed with permission from the court. This means that although the 2023-2024 NHL season is already over, broadcasters will be able to add the upcoming 2024-2025 season if they choose. The applicants also intend to add Major League Baseball games to the list, the judge noted. Canada’s first pirate site-blocking order was issued in November 2019. Originally limited to a static list of IP addresses, the practice expanded with the introduction of dynamic blocking two years later. However, unlike previous blocking orders, which stemmed from lawsuits against specific pirates and were limited to the events of single sports leagues, Little's decision was the result of a shared application from multiple broadcasting rightsholders of various sports leagues. While it states that the pirate streamers are permanently required not to infringe the applicants’ copyright, the site-blocking order is set to expire after two years. – Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca

Federal Court grants site-blocking order against pirate NHL, NBA, Premier League live streams

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By Phalen Tynes-MacDonald
| July 17, 2024

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Federal Court grants site-blocking order against pirate NHL, NBA, Premier League live streams

Broadcast | By Phalen Tynes-MacDonald | July 17, 2024

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By Phalen Tynes-MacDonald
| July 17, 2024