The background to events currently underway in Spain is detailed in our earlier reports but can be summarized as follows.

Through various court orders, top Spanish football league LaLiga may issue instructions for local ISPs to block pirate streaming sites and IPTV services.

Blocking is carried out by domain, URL, IP address, or meddling with DNS entries. Those actions are based on information supplied by LaLiga each week, no scrutiny from the court required.

LaLiga and Cloudflare Collide

In an effort to mitigate the effects of blocking or benefit from other features, pirate sites using Cloudflare are less easily taken offline. That caused tempers to boil over at LaLiga and then keep boiling throughout the current two to three week crisis.

LaLiga’s general position is that since Cloudflare is in a position to make LaLiga’s life easier by tackling piracy, it has an obligation to do so. Cloudflare says that LaLiga will be treated just like other rightsholders, and given access to the same tools.

Precisely what LaLiga demanded and on what basis, remains unclear, but when Cloudflare refused to cooperate, LaLiga told ISPs to block Cloudflare IP addresses. That blocked the pirate services, but it also restricted access to Cloudflare’s customers’ websites and prevented people from visiting them.

LaLiga says that, if people have website issues, they should blame Cloudflare – while also getting ready for more because it won’t be backing down anytime soon.

Cloudflare, in turn, has now responded with legal action that asks a court to rule that LaLiga’s blocking is illegal, and then on that basis, revoke LaLiga’s authority to issue blocking instructions previously authorized by the court.

Cloudflare Statement

As a long-time advocate for the open Internet, Cloudflare provides security and reliability services that protect millions of websites from cyberattacks and strengthen the Internet’s infrastructure.

In recent weeks, LaLiga and the Spanish ISPs have wrongly attempted to address the issue of illegal streaming, on the purported basis of a recently issued ruling that would order the blocking of shared IP addresses of Cloudflare and other cloud service providers, a clumsy and ineffective approach that has prevented millions of users from accessing thousands of websites unrelated to such activities.

LaLiga obtained this ruling without addressing the cloud service providers, thereby concealing from the Court the foreseeable harm to third parties and the public interest. LaLiga’s actions pose a clear threat to the open Internet.

Cloudflare has today filed a motion to annul the ruling, seeking to establish that LaLiga’s disproportionate blocking measures are illegal.

Cloudflare routinely works with rights holders to help resolve issues such as illegal streaming, but LaLiga has left Cloudflare with no choice but to pursue this legal avenue. Rather than addressing Spanish users’ concerns about over-blocking of content, LaLiga has attempted to divert attention by making unfounded accusations against Cloudflare, while stepping up its illegal blocking practices.

Cloudflare hopes this court action will help prevent future indiscriminate blocking measures and make clear that rights holders cannot put their commercial interests before the fundamental right of millions of consumers to access an open Internet.

(Courtesy of Bandaancha , translated from Spanish)

Cloudflare’s mention of a recent ruling is interesting for several reasons. On a fundamental level, not involving Cloudflare in a process that directly affects its ability to go about its business, was likely to cause friction sooner or later.

Second, it appears that the motivation for the ruling in question turns out to be quite unusual.

Targeting ECH

The judgment in question, dated December 18, 2024, was issued by Commercial Court No. 6 of Barcelona following legal action by LaLiga and Telefónica Audiovisual Digital (owner of broadcaster Movistar Plus+), which requested ISPs including Vodafone, MásOrange, Digi and Movistar, to block pirate sites/services.

The unusual feature of the complaint is the focus on Encrypted Client Hello, or ECH for short. As highlighted earlier, this can effectively be used to bypass site blocking .

A brief explanation of ECH and its benefits to internet users is available from Cloudflare but in short, whenever a user visits a website on Cloudflare that has ECH enabled, intermediaries (like ISPs) will be able to see the user is visiting a site using Cloudflare, but won’t be able to identify which one.

Both Cloudflare and Google are mentioned in the LaLiga/Telefonica complaint, with ECH acknowledged as a hindrance to the companies’ site-blocking measures, in a section of the decision cited below.

This protocol, initially designed as a solution to alleged breaches in the area of ​​Internet users’ privacy, currently prevents the development of blocks by domains and URLs, as it allows traffic to be encrypted, and thus blocks can be made by domains and/or URLs, as Internet access service providers (ISPs) can no longer inspect the part relating to SNI5 necessary to apply blocks, according to reports on the application of the ECH protocol issued by LLCP and the anti-piracy department of [Telefonica].

The conclusion of the technical analysis is that the actual effectiveness of domain blocking (URLs/Domains) decreases as users use browsers (Google’s Chrome) that use ECH technology. A similar case occurs with Apple’s “Private Relay” feature, introduced as part of iCloud+, focused on web traffic.

According to Bandaancha, which published sections of the decision, the above issues were presented as justification for enhanced blocking measures against 119 entities, listed alongside their domain names, ports, IP addresses, and the hosting companies used.

LaLiga obtained permission to carry out dynamic blocking against new IP addresses, domains etc, in the event countermeasures were deployed by pirate sites.

Around 35 of the services are reportedly using Cloudflare and since the blocking measures requested were not considered “contrary to the law, public order or harmful to third parties,” the order was granted.

LaLiga used that authority to block the pirate sites, by blocking Cloudflare IP address and by extension, its users in Spain.

All in all, this case highlights the tension between copyright enforcement and intermediaries such as Cloudflare. The outcome could have significant implications for how these blocking issues are addressed in the future.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Dynamic injunctions for tackling live sports piracy were crafted in the UK by the Premier League and first authorized by the High Court of England and Wales in 2017.

Football Association Premier League Ltd v British Telecommunications Plc & Ors compelled the UK’s major ISPs to block specific servers providing illicit match streams into the UK, with flexibility built-in by design.

In the years that followed, continuous fine-tuning set the legal standard for others to follow. Years of development work in conjunction with anti-piracy partner Friend MTS provided for sophisticated dynamic blocking of pirate IPTV services. That opened up new opportunities to support broadcasters and sports leagues developing their own live blocking programs overseas, with Canada a notable example .

Italy Preferred to Tread its Own Path

When Italy passed new law in 2023 in support of its now-infamous ‘Piracy Shield’ blocking system, the decision to go with a whole new anti-piracy platform was, at least on face value, somewhat baffling.

On one hand, the Premier League can be seen as a rival of top-tier Italian league Serie A; yet on the other, they share the same opponent in the fight against piracy. With anti-piracy coalitions also showing success right now, the theory made sense; after a year of blunders and controversy, little else did.

In an interview published Monday, Chris White, Chief Architect at Friend MTS, recalled last year’s football season as having a little more tension than usual.

Not If – When Disaster Strikes

“This summer the broadcast industry held its breath as news came out about overblocking by Italy’s new anti-piracy platform Piracy Shield, which is managed by AGCOM, the country’s communications regulator,” White said.

“Nobody wants to be responsible for blocking legitimate online services, damaging brands and impacting revenues.”

White was likely referring to the controversial blocking of Cloudflare and an unknown number of its customers’ websites, due to a Cloudflare IP address being wrongfully placed on the Piracy Shield system.

Despite that event ticking all three of the above boxes, there was no sign of public reflection on what could be learned from the experience. Instead, AGCOM declared war on Cloudflare and Serie A dragged the cloud provider into a lawsuit .

More Restraint, Increased Scrutiny

The above took place to a background of legal amendments to authorize more aggressive blocking and punishments for the tech industry for failing to engage in the blocking program. With rightsholders reportedly free to block with even less oversight than before, visible action to prevent history from repeating itself was notable only by its absence.

Moving forward, White said, the general threat of overblocking and its consequences should lead to a more considered approach.

“As the industry digests this risk, we expect to see more restraint and increased scrutiny about automated solutions and a shift towards blocking services with proven accuracy and industry-proven monitoring tech,” he explained.

“More importantly, we now need to make a concerted effort to counter the controversy by educating the industry about how effective blocking has been over the last seven years. We support many big name and lesser known broadcasters, streamers and sports leagues such as UEFA in effective blocking that is protecting the value of rights and revenues, and have done so for numerous years without issue.

“This is achieved through best-in-class monitoring and forensically accurate technologies to ensure that any targets won’t cause collateral damage on legitimate services.”

The Serie A and Friend MTS Partnership

If the quote above sounds a like a sales pitch, the timing is about right. In January 2022, Friend MTS confirmed a three-season deal with Serie A to combat piracy via its “field-leading global monitoring services” which provide “real-time identification of illegal streams of live Lega Serie A content…”

The three-year deal was actually a three-year extension, one that marked a decade-long Serie A partnership with Friend MTS. Whether that relationship will continue is unclear, but if Serie A already enjoys blocking accuracy thanks to Friend MTS, why did Cloudflare and then later Google both get blocked by Piracy Shield?

All we know is that AGCOM publicly blamed DAZN for both ‘blunders’ and on the Friend MTS website , DAZN isn’t mentioned as one of the company’s partners.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

In dozens of countries around the world, website blocking is the preferred way for copyright holders to restrict access to pirate sites.

Originally pioneered in Europe, the enforcement tactic has since gone global, with blockades now in place from Asia to South America, with the United States queuing up too.

Peru’s Blocking Efforts

In Peru, site blocking measures have been commonplace for a few years already. In response to complaints from rightsholders, Internet providers have been ordered to block hundreds of domain names. The targets range from torrent sites, through YouTube rippers, to streaming portals.

These blocking orders are handed down by INDECOPI , the IP protection arm of the government. Last November, INDECOPI collaborated in the latest round of Operation 404 , blocking or suspending 328 pirate sites and services. Meanwhile, regular blocking efforts continue as well.

Late last week, INDECOPI issued two new site blocking orders, all targeting sports streaming sites. The blocking orders follow a complaint from the sports company 1190 Peru , which manages and commercializes the rights of several sports leagues, including Peru’s top football competition Liga1.

‘Dynamic’ Pirate Site Blocking Order

After considering the presented evidence, INDECOPI ordered local internet providers including Telefonica, América Móvil, and Entel, to block 23 pirate sites. Those targeted include Rojadirecta, Channelstream.es, Pirlotv, Librefutboltv, and Socceronline.me, among others.

These blocking measures are not new, but the scope of the injunction is. For the first time, INDECOPI handed down a dynamic injunction, meaning that additional domains can be blocked, if site operators switch to new ones to circumvent blocking measures,

“[T]he administrators and/or owners of the website subject to blocking could take actions in order to circumvent the aforementioned measures, which would become ineffective. Such measures could involve, among others, the creation of new domain names..,” INDECOPI writes.

“For this reason, the Commission considers it necessary that this precautionary blocking measure adopts a dynamic nature,” the order adds.

The order references dynamic blocking orders in other countries, including in the European Union, and concludes that a similar approach is also warranted in Peru. If rightsholders want additional domains to be blocked, they first have to back up their request with evidence, however, to ensure proper oversight.

Scrutinized Evidence

The latest injunctions show that rightsholders can’t simply list any pirate site in their blocking requests. INDECOPI carefully considers all presented evidence, and doesn’t shy away from rejecting blockades when it falls short.

For example, 1190 Peru’s original complaint regarding Rojadirecta listed four domain names; rojadirectatv.nl, rojadirectatvhd.com, rojadirectatvhd.ws and rojadirectaenvivo.me. However, three of these domain names were rejected because the presented evidence was not sufficient.

Similarly, of the 47 alleged pirate site domain names in the second complaint, only 22 were ultimately blocked. The others were rejected over lacking evidence, incomplete records, or the absence of any infringing content.

One domain that stands out is sur.ly, which is an outbound link management service. Sur.ly has nothing to do with pirate sites, but third-parties can use the domain to load external websites, much like a proxy. Needless to say, blocking Sur.ly would be rather extreme, and INDECOPI denied the request.

“The site corresponds to a web traffic tool and, by itself, does not carry out acts of exploitation of the contents that are the subject of the claim,” the IP protection authority writes.

TorrentFreak spoke to someone familiar with the matter, who informed us that some of the rejected blocking requests were resubmitted to INDECOPI with proper, notarized evidence. Whether that will include Sur.ly’s main domain, which has plenty of legal uses, is unknown.

—

Copies of the two injunctions are available below, with an overview of all domain names that must be blocked by local ISPs.

Injunction 1 ( RESOLUTION N° 376-2024 )

– channelstream.es
– fbstreams.pm
– futbolparatodostv.net
– intergolestv.com
– lacasadeltikitaka.net
– librefutboltv.com
– librefutboltv.net
– liga1maxtv.pe
– liga1maxtvhd.com
– liga1maxtv.live
– nbatv.site
– pirlotv.app
– pirlo.run
– sinfutboltv.com
– socceronline.me
– telerium.biz
– peru15.com
– vipleague.im
– viper-play.net
– -viperplayhd.com
– viprow.nu
– zonadeporteshd.online

Injunction 2 ( RESOLUTION N° 375-2024 )

– rojadirectatvhd.ws

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Unless they already have links to existing platforms or can somehow benefit from traffic previously destined for a popular preexisting domain, most new pirate sites aren’t overnight success stories.

In a saturated market where most innovation takes place behind the scenes, if it happens at all, the next big thing may struggle to make any kind of serious impression. When dozens, even hundreds of similar platforms are already offering the same content, presented in a broadly similar way, potentially via the same interface, evidence of success may take months or even years to appear.

Popular in Months, Blocked Many, Many Months Later

In 2024, the most obvious outward indication of success for many sites is being placed on various rightsholder-maintained blocklists; they reward a site’s success or recognize its potential by stymieing further progress through the use of mostly regional ISP blockades. Australia has been methodically dealing with locally-significant sites in this manner since 2015, and via a more robust system since 2018.

Legislation has been developed to permit DNS and/or IP address blocking within a flexible ‘dynamic injunction’ framework, but when reading through an injunction signed off by Justice Nicholas at the Federal Court this week, it’s evident just how quickly things can change.

The original application was filed on November 9, 2023, headed up by local companies Roadshow Films and Village Roadshow Films, plus Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Universal City Studios, Warner Bros., plus affiliates Netflix Studios and Netflix Worldwide Entertainment. The respondents in the matter, dozens of local ISPs operating under Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom, Aussie Broadband, iiNet, Vodafone, and other branding, were asked to block over 30 pirate sites operating under dozens of different domains.

The sites include: bayofpirates, proxygalaxy, tvbayoplus, haitu, watch-free, bbmovies, wcoanimedubbedonline, 6movies, animeflv, hdwatch, 9movies, seriesonlinehd, soap2dayhd, 123moviesfree, watchmovies, movieshd, gogoanime, animepahe, losmovies, 4anime, extratorrents, limetorrents, nivod4, aniwatch, kissanime, and watchcartoononline

After years of tuning the process is now well understood, and there’s little to no opposition from anyone since the criteria for blocking speaks for itself. However, after four months of ensuring the paperwork is correct, the list itself is predictably in need of an update.

Since dynamic injunctions are flexible, there’s nothing that can’t be fixed, but even after being identified in some cases by their main domains and several alternatives, targets continue to move. Aniwatch stands out as a site known by millions, yet just a few weeks before the application was made it was called Zoro.to. Today, after yet another change, it operates from HiAnime.to .

Gogoanime, on the other hand, laughs in the face of such consistency. Currently operating from anitaku.to and gogoanime3.co, the last round of switches featured gogoanimehd.io and gogoanime3.net. And since it doesn’t matter how many times a site changes its domain, or if other similar domains are even operated by the same people, gogoanimex.to, gogoanime.video, gogoanime.sk, .tel, news, .bid, .ar, and all the others , can now be blocked in Australia regardless.

The studios have to compensate the ISPs for initial blocking at the rate of AUS$50 per domain (US$33), and then another AUS$50 per domain after that. Pirate sites could try to bleed the studios dry by maintaining a more vigorous domain-switching pace but as strategies go, there have been better ones; blocking carried out as part of this order will continue for three years, minimum.

The Second Blocking Bus Has Apple on Board

The second application worthy of mention today was filed on March 13, 2024, and is unfortunately so new that precise details of the application are yet to be made available.

Until the real documents appear, we’ve put together the details of the request in a document available below. It features all the usual ISPs, the usual local rightsholders, plus members of the MPA including Netflix.

But perhaps the most interesting rightsholder is new arrival Apple Video Programming LLC, which owns the rights to Apple+ shows including Silo and Criminal Record, among many others, mostly exclusives .

The blocking order related to the November 2023 application is available here (pdf)

The application filed on March 13, 2024, featuring Apple hasn’t been made available yet so, in the meantime, the basic details can be found here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

This weekend, we reported that the open source movie search app movie-web lost control over the domain name of its demo site.

Registrar Namecheap suspended the domain following a complaint from several major Hollywood studios and Netflix. Initially, broader context was missing but new information suggests that an Indian order lies at the basis of this intervention.

Like many other countries around the world, India’s copyright law allows rightsholders to limit access to pirate sites. This measure is widely used by major American movie companies to obtain injunctions that require local Internet providers to block websites to prevent piracy.

Dynamic+ Blocking Orders

Over the years the nature of these court orders has evolved. The initial measures were straightforward, in the sense that they pointed out specifically which domains should be blocked. These later evolved into ‘dynamic’ versions, allowing rightsholders to add new domains and proxies whenever they are launched.

The Indian courts are not stopping at dynamic blocking orders either. In several instances, Internet providers have been instructed to block websites because they might make infringing works available in the future. This includes content yet to be created.

In addition, ISPs are no longer the only parties that are covered by dynamic+ injunctions . The orders also require domain name registrars worldwide to disable the mentioned domain names. Domain registrars that refuse to comply risk losing their ability to operate in India.

Movie-web.app and 44 Other ‘Pirate’ Domains

Namecheap’s decision to suspend the movie-web.app domain follows after Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. and others obtained a new dynamic+ injunction at the High Court of Delhi earlier this month. The complaint in question lists 45 domain names linked to 28 defendants (full list below).

The injunction requires Indian ISPs to block the domains, but also lists ‘domain registrars’ as a broad category, without specifically naming any.

“The respective Domain Name Registrars of Defendants No. 1 to 28, upon being intimated by the Plaintiffs, shall lock and suspend the said domain names. In addition, any details relating to the registrants of the said domain names including KYC, credit card, mobile number, etc. be also provided to the Plaintiffs,” it reads.

According to the order, the operators of these websites are doing all they can to hide their identities. Attempts to compel the operators to stop the allegedly infringing activity presumably failed.

“Plaintiffs’ legal notices to takedown the infringing content from the websites have been futile. Defendants No. 1 to 28 are thus knowingly engaging in the impugned activities, in utter disregard of the Plaintiffs’ rights,” the order notes.

While the above typically applies to rogue pirate sites, we’re not sure how accurate it is for movie-web. The identities of the developers involved in the open source project are easy to find and, in their shutdown message a few days ago, they said that they “would go down without a fight,” if it came to that.

Movie-web kept its word. After Namecheap put the domain on clientHold , it didn’t make any comeback attempts. The software is still available for others to use but the official demo website will remain offline.

Not all Domains are Offline

The movie-web example suggests that Namecheap complied with the Indian court order. This is further confirmed by other Namecheap-registered domains from the same injunction that also went offline, including moviemods.dev, epxmovies.com, sflix.watch and goflixtor.com.

All of these domains now have a clientHold status, rendering them inaccessible. The same applies to domains that were registered through Porkbun , which include cinehub.wtf, filmygallery.baby, and other filmygallery domains.

Domains registered through Namebright and Dynadot are also unreachable, but these don’t have a dedicated status code.

Not all domains covered by the order are offline though. At the time of writing, several Tucows registered domains remain accessible or redirect to new ones, and the same applies to domains that are linked to Dynadot, Sarek, Realtime Register, and Godaddy.

The above are just our initial findings and these shouldn’t be used to draw broader conclusions, especially since some domain registrars are only tied to a single domain name. However, it is worth taking note and comparing these actions to any in the future.

.To Complications

The above suggests that at least some American domain registrars are responsive to an Indian court injunction, obtained by American movie studios. This means that this “Indian route” could be a fruitful anti-piracy measure for rightsholders.

Thus far, however, none of the .to domain names listed in the injunction have gone offline. The .to registry ‘ Tonic ‘ is not covered by the injunction, but it appears that none of the registrars of these domain names has ‘intervened’ either.

The .to domain whois doesn’t list who the registrars are but TorrentFreak has information which shows that upmovies.to, zorox.to, flixwave.to and others were registered through Namecheap. This is interesting because Namecheap suspended non- .to domains.

We asked Namecheap for a comment on our findings but the company didn’t immediately respond.

One explanation for the response discrepancy could be that the Tonic registry doesn’t support the clientHold status code. Namecheap used this to suspend the other domain names, so the lack of action with regard to the .to domains may be of a technical nature.

Whatever the explanation is, these dynamic+ orders are among the most effective we’ve seen so far. With that in mind, we expect Hollywood to use the Indian route more often going forward, if they want U.S. companies to take action.

—

A copy of the dynamic+ injunction issued by Justice Sanjeev Narula at the Delhi High Court is available here (pdf) . A full list of all affected domain names is available below.

1. fzkidd.net
2. ofilmyzilla.ms
3. ofilmyzilla.com.ve
4. ofilmyzilla.it
5. tamilyogi.plus
6. tamilyogi.love
7. tamilyogi.band
8. soap2day.tel
9. myflixer.la
10. flixer.ph
11. myflixer.ph
12. sflix.watch
13. sflixz.to
14. moviesmod.dev
15. moviesmod.wiki
16. moviesmod.one
17. freemovies360.cc
18. streamm4u.com
19. streamm4u.to
20. desicinemas.ink
21. epxmovies.net
22. movi.pk
23. 123moviesfree.mx
24. filmygallery.baby
25. filmygallery.app
26. filmygallery.cab
27. filmygallery.club
28. filmygallery.foo
29. filmygallery.lol
30. filmygallery.pro
31. zorox.to
32. zoro.vc
33. flixwave.to
34. upmovies.to
35. mydownloadtube.net
36. movie-web.app
37. moviekhhd.biz
38. movieshd.watch
39. goflixtor.com
40. cinehub.wtf
41. arc018.to
42. flixerplus.com
43. netmovies.to
44. aniwatch.to
45. toonstream.in

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Over the past several years and especially over the past several months, major rightsholders’ interest in India appears to have risen.

India’s piracy rates provide the most obvious explanation but seemingly sudden and escalating use of India-based anti-piracy outfits is more difficult to quantify. Maybe they’re simply cheaper than the alternatives, or perhaps the jurisdiction has benefits. Certainly, Indian courts might already be providing access to one of the most powerful anti-piracy tools seen in years.

Cautious Approach Disappears Into History

Last May, the High Court in Delhi issued an injunction that among other things, required ISPs to block domain names that hadn’t even been registered. That was just another example of what can be obtained relatively easily from an Indian court today that would’ve been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Guided by the experience of courts in other jurisdictions, in April 2019 the High Court of Delhi issued the country’s first dynamic injunction , carefully crafted to deal with pirate site countermeasures such as domain hopping and mirror sites.

The Court acknowledged the “wide ramifications” of permanent site-wide blocking orders, the need to mitigate risk of over-blocking, and the corresponding need for judicial scrutiny. Justice Manmohan’s order also considered the importance of balancing the interests of rightsholders, ISPs, and the public, with a strictly proportionate response to online piracy.

Supercharging Site-Blocking

Having brought India right up to date, courts seemed happy to press ahead. Within months, a court ordered the preemptive blocking of over 1,100 websites , to protect a movie that hadn’t been released yet, while injunctions issued previously were updated to tackle the hydras .

In September 2022, the High Court of Delhi issued a site-blocking injunction that required domain registrars in the United States to immediately suspend a list of site domain names. The stated aim was to prevent an unreleased movie from appearing on those domains, at an unknown date sometime in the future. A month later another court handed down an order to block over 13,400 sites to protect another unreleased movie.

Major U.S. rightsholders could ask a court in the United States for something similar but for obvious reasons, have not. However, Indian courts are much more predictable and, when it comes to site-blocking injunctions, now seem receptive to new mechanisms being included to ensure compliance.

Suspending Domains Under Dynamic+ Injunctions

What we’re able to show today is that at least one domain registrar in the United States has suspended domain names under the instructions of the High Court of Delhi. The suspensions are part of a dynamic+ injunction issued in India last year, to protect the rights of several Hollywood studios and Netflix, ostensibly in India.

There are more than 70 domains in the injunction and orders for domain registrars to suspend them all have already been issued.

The most striking domain in the list is Aniwave.to, a site dedicated to anime that currently receives 317 million visits per month; roughly 40% from the U.S., 9% from the United Kingdom, 8% from Canada, 3.5% Australia, and 2.5% Philippines.

Whatever percentage visit from India, it’s less than 2.5% of the site’s traffic according to SimilarWeb stats. A domain suspension, meanwhile, has global repercussions.

MPA Requests Blocking Injunction

“In a continued effort to curb dissemination of pirated content and its availability on internet, the Plaintiffs who are well established Hollywood Studios have approached this Court seeking blocking and removal of their copyrighted content, from the internet, accessed through rogue websites,” an order handed down by the High Court of Delhi explains.

“The suit is filed against a number of rogue websites who are unlawfully disseminating and communicating a large quantum of copyrighted content of the Plaintiffs,” the order continues, adding that the content “can be accessed and viewed on a variety of devices including Televisions, Personal Computers, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile Phones, etc.”

The order notes that the “rogue websites” offer “illegal viewing almost on a real-time basis” of the studios’ content including Stranger Things, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman, Spider Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, and The Jungle Book.

Court Issues Dynamic+ Injnction

In light of the claims, the Court says it’s necessary to restrain the sites from streaming, reproducing, distributing, making available to the public and/or communicating to the public, in any manner, any copyrighted content owned by the Plaintiffs including any content they may own in the future.

The scope of the injunction includes all domains listed above, plus any mirror/redirect websites or alphanumeric websites or any variations thereof. At this point the scope of the injunction starts to become apparent.

“….websites identified in the present suit or any mirror/redirect websites or alphanumeric websites, or any variations thereof including those websites which are associated with the Defendants’ websites either based on the name, branding, identity of its operator, or discovered to provide additional means of accessing the Defendant’s website, and other domains/ domain along with their sub-domains and sub-directories, owners, website operators/ entities or even sources of content.”

Assumed association due to “sources of content” could be significant. The vast majority of movie and TV show piracy sites use the same pool of movie and TV show content by default. Arguing these sources of content are effectively the same wouldn’t be difficult in this type of court procedure, especially when arguing otherwise would require a pirate site operator to explain to the contrary.

Block Domains But Also Suspend Them

The order instructs local ISPs to block the domains listed above and as explained, any and all domains (plus “associated” domains) that subsequently appear to facilitate access to them, in perpetuity. However, it also goes further still by ordering domain name registrars to “lock and suspend” all affected domains while handing over domain owners’ details to the Hollywood studios.

“The Domain Name Registrars (DNRs) of the rogue websites’ domain names, upon being intimated by the Plaintiffs shall lock and suspend the said domain names. In addition, any details relating to the registrants of the said domain names including KYC, credit card, mobile number, etc. be also provided to the Plaintiffs,” the order reads.

Whether all registrars will comply remains to be seen but if they want to continue doing business in India, they appear to have little choice . Non-compliance could mean that registrars themselves will be blocked by ISPs.

TorrentFreak can confirm that at least two domains were suspended recently due to this action; fztvseries.mobi and mobiletvshows.net

“In the month of December, Namecheap suspended our domains based on the order from an Indian court,” the former owner of the domains informed us this week.

“The suspension was done without any warning or any sort of communication from either Namecheap or the plaintiff. It was only after noticing the suspension that we reached out to Namecheap. It took approximately five days for Namecheap to reply with an explanation for the suspension.”

Communication between the domain owner and Namecheap is included below.

“Indian courts have a reputation of issuing broad orders that encompass thousands of websites in a single directive, often without thorough verification. Such practices could potentially cause significant global disruption, especially if domain registrars begin to comply with orders from various countries,” the former domain owner concludes.

The sites in question have moved to new domains (fztvseries.live and mobiletvshows.site) and claim that traffic levels have returned to 80% of the levels seen before the suspensions.

Given the nature of the injunction, those domains are vulnerable to being blocked at bare minimum or even seized again. The bigger question is whether Indian courts are now being viewed as the preferred option for enforcement moving forward.

The order issued by the High Court of Delhi can be found here ( pdf )

The domains affected by the initial order are listed below but according to the Court’s instructions, any domains that can be linked to these sites or their operators in future must also be blocked and suspended

fztvseries.mobi
mobiletvshows.net
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From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.