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Italy is escalating its fight against illegal streaming, demanding that Google implement DNS “poisoning” under its stringent Piracy Shield law. This move follows similar actions against Italian ISPs and companies like Cloudflare, aiming to block access to unauthorized football streams.
Google Accused of Inaction on Pirated Streams
The Court of Milan’s order stems from accusations that Google failed to block websites identified by AGCOM, the Italian communication regulator, as sources of illegal Serie A football streams. The court ruled that Google, as a public DNS provider, must comply with the site-blocking law.
DNS Poisoning: A Controversial Tactic
Critics decry the Piracy Shield as overly aggressive due to its reliance on DNS blocking, a blunt instrument that can disrupt access to entire domains, even if only a small portion contains infringing content. A past incident saw Italian ISPs briefly block Google Drive because a user shared copyrighted material.
AGCOM Praises Ruling, Vows to Continue Fight
AGCOM Commissioner Massimiliano Capitanio celebrated the ruling on LinkedIn, hailing the Piracy Shield as a “unique” system for copyright protection. He criticized Google for allegedly ignoring AGCOM’s lists of pirate sites, which are supposed to be blocked within 30 minutes.
Cloudflare Faced Similar Action
This action mirrors a prior case against Cloudflare, where the court threatened fines for failing to block access to pirate sites through its CDN, DNS server, and WARP VPN.
Google potentially faces similar penalties. AGCOM has struggled to enforce its regulations on international tech giants. We have contacted Google for their response.
Source: Ryan Whitwam, Ars Technica
- DNS Poisoning: Altering DNS records to prevent users from accessing specific websites.
- Piracy Shield: Italy’s law aimed at combating online piracy.
- AGCOM: Italy’s communication regulator.