📰 New article from TorrentFreak
Sports Rightsholders Want an EU Blacklist for ‘Piracy’ Hosting Providers
https://torrentfreak.com/sports-rightsholders-want-an-eu-blacklist-for-piracy-hosting-providers/
Ever wonder why your favorite stream buffers right when the big goal is scored? You might want to thank the copyright lobby.
Sports broadcasters like beIN Sports are pushing the European Commission to create a hardline “blacklist” of rogue hosting providers. Instead of just blocking specific pirate websites, they want ISPs and data centers to cut off entire networks identified by their Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs). Think of it as banning an entire apartment building because one tenant is playing loud music.
This isn’t just a sports gripe. The Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance, representing giants like the Premier League and DAZN, backs the idea. Even Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, filed a similar submission. They all want a central EU authority to designate non-compliant offshore hosts, forcing European internet providers to block traffic at the infrastructure level.
The catch? Internet service providers are warning that this approach could cause massive “overblocking.” If you ban an ASN, you might accidentally knock out legitimate services sharing that network. While the rightsholders argue this is necessary to kill piracy, intermediaries see it as a recipe for collateral damage. It’s a classic standoff: content creators want the kill switch, while tech companies want to avoid breaking the internet in the process.