📰 New article from TorrentFreak
Paris Court Kicks Off New Football Season with Multi-Intermediary Piracy Blocking Orders
Football season is back, and so is France’s annual ritual of shutting down pirate streams. This time, the Paris Judicial Court didn’t just block the obvious streaming sites; it went full-spectrum. In a coordinated move signed in July, broadcaster Canal+ secured orders targeting ISPs, DNS providers, CDNs, VPNs, and even search engines like Google and Bing.
The goal? To ensure there’s no digital backdoor left open for fans looking to watch the Premier League or Champions League for free. Major providers like Orange and Free are blocking 73 specific domains. But the real innovation here is the net being cast wider than ever. If you try to bypass the ISP blocks using Cloudflare’s DNS or a VPN like ExpressVPN, the court has already told those services to step aside.
The legal battle was fierce. VPN providers argued that EU directives shielded them from liability, but the court disagreed, ruling that acting as a “bridge” for infringing content makes them fair game. Meanwhile, Google’s attempt to challenge Canal+’s rights didn’t sway the judge.
The kicker? These orders are just a preview. France is currently rewriting its sports laws to allow for automated, real-time blocking during live broadcasts. So, while you might still find a loophole today, the digital walls are about to get significantly higher. Enjoy the game—while it’s legal.