There is a concerning development in Italy on its Piracy Shield system, which allows copyright companies to order ISPs to block websites without due process. It can be utilized to enforce temporary outages on anything from sport live streams to popular cloud storage providers like Google Drive.
The 30-minute window [to block a site] leaves extremely limited time for careful verification by ISPs that the submitted destination is indeed being used for piracy purposes. Additionally, in the case of shared IP addresses, a block can very easily (and often will) restrict access to lawful websites – harming legitimate businesses and thus creating barriers to the EU single market. This lack of oversight poses risks not only to users’ freedom to access information, but also to the wider economy. Because blocking vital digital tools can disrupt countless individuals and businesses who rely on them for everyday operations. As other industry associations have also underlined, such blocking regimes present a significant and growing trade barrier within the EU.
Walled Culture has been covering Italy’s Piracy Shield for quite some time now. They are notably concerned that it can be used to pressure DNS and VPN providers…which is far beyond its current application to illegal streaming services.
That is, Piracy Shield will apply to live content far beyond sports events, its original justification, and to streaming services. Even DNS and VPN providers will be required to block sites, a serious technical interference in the way the Internet operates, and a threat to people’s privacy. Search engines, too, will be forced to de-index material. The only minor concession to ISPs is to unblock domain names and IP addresses that are no longer allegedly being used to disseminate unauthorised material. There are, of course, no concessions to ordinary Internet users affected by Piracy Shield blunders.