Quad9, the DNS resolver that previously fought and ultimately won a legal battle against Sony Music in the German courts, is the latest company to be hit by a web-blocking injunction in France instigated by broadcaster Canal+. It has complied with that injunction but intends to appeal.
Dubbing the Canal+ injunction “an absurd application of copyright law”, it says forcing DNS resolvers to block access to specific websites on copyright grounds “risks breaking a system that works well”. Noting its success against Sony in the German courts, it adds “Quad9 has evidence that fighting works - we have already won one ruling in our favour and we expect that trend to continue”.
With web-blocking, copyright owners secure injunctions through the courts that order internet companies to block their customers from accessing specific piracy websites.
Music companies have sought web-blocks against numerous piracy sites in multiple countries, usually targeting internet service providers. However, in more recent years they have also sought web-blocking orders targeting other kinds of internet companies, including DNS resolvers, which help direct traffic around the internet, routing URLs and domain-names to the underlying web services that serve content.
When Sony Music went legal in Germany seeking a web-blocking order against Quad9 it was initially successful. However, Quad9 fought back, pursuing all available routes of appeal in the courts, while speaking out about the legal battle and rallying the support of its users. Ultimately it won the case.
Writing about the Sony dispute in a new blog post about the Canal+ web-blocks, Quad9 says, “After several appeals, the courts in Dresden found in favour of Quad9 in a way that was not merely a win - it was determined to be such a clear victory for Quad9 that no [further] appeals were permitted”.
In legal terms, Quad9 successfully argued that, as a DNS resolver that doesn’t host any websites or content, it was a “mere conduit” when people accessed the piracy sites it had been told the block. And under German law, that means it is not obliged to instigate any web-blocks.
Canal+ has been busy getting web-blocking injunctions in France against sports piracy sites which stream sporting events for which it has the exclusive broadcast rights within the French market. It previously targeted DNS resolvers operated by Google, Cloudflare and Cisco.
All three unsuccessfully opposed the web-blocking orders. Google and Cloudflare, therefore, have been forced to instigate them. However, Cisco just pulled its OpenDNS service out of the French market entirely.
One challenge for DNS resolvers that receive web-blocking orders in one country is that the block may have to be applied globally. That applies to Quad9. It writes, “we do not have geographic blocking methods to localise the censorship activity, as our system is designed to treat everyone in every nation identically”. As a result, the Canal+ injunction “amounts to French law being applied globally”.
In its blog post, Quad9 runs through the ways in which its service provides protection for its users, adding that - if, like Cisco, it left the French market to avoid implementing the web-block - that would leave its users in the country “exposed to the cybersecurity risks that Quad9 defends against”.
“Our intent is to keep our systems operational in France and fight this decision”, they conclude. “We must continue to make a stand wherever challenged, as long as we believe that the outcome can be just”.