📰 New article from TorrentFreak
‘VPNs at Risk’: Tech Coalition Pushes Back on Piracy Blocking Duties for VPNs
https://torrentfreak.com/vpns-at-risk-tech-coalition-pushes-back-on-piracy-blocking-duties-for-vpns/
### The Internet’s “Cat and Mouse” Game Just Got Complicated
If you’ve ever used a VPN to watch a show from another country or just to keep your browsing private, you might want to pay attention to what’s happening in Washington (and Paris).
A major tech coalition, known as the i2Coalition, just dropped a report titled “VPNs at Risk.” Their big concern? Lawmakers are increasingly looking at VPN providers as the “bad guys” who help people bypass copyright laws. The group warns that forcing VPNs to block specific pirate sites is a slippery slope that turns neutral internet infrastructure into a tool for copyright enforcement.
The battle isn’t just theoretical. In France, courts have already ordered major players like NordVPN and ExpressVPN to block dozens of streaming domains. The coalition argues that when you start targeting the “pipes” of the internet to catch a few bad actors, you end up punishing millions of innocent users.
The key takeaways:
- Collateral Damage: Regulating VPN protocols can accidentally break legitimate corporate networks and privacy tools.
- Liability Woes: If VPNs are held responsible for what their users do, they might start preemptively banning users or restricting access to avoid lawsuits.
- U.S. Legislation: Two competing bills are currently on the table in the U.S.—one that would force VPNs to block sites, and another that explicitly protects them.
For now, the tech industry is playing a high-stakes game of defense, hoping lawmakers realize that you can’t fix piracy by breaking the internet’s privacy tools.