A coalition of internet companies has raised concerns with the US government about the use of web-blocking by courts and governments in various other countries, including as part of anti-piracy measures. They raise particular concern about web-blocking orders being enforced against so called DNS resolvers, something the music industry has been seeking in Europe in recent years. 

“Blocking at the global DNS resolver level is especially problematic”, says a submission to the US Trade Representative from the Internet Infrastructure Coalition. Interfering with the domain name system in that way, it adds, “not only restricts access but can fragment the global internet, jeopardising the trust and integrity of the DNS as a core global infrastructure”. 

The US government, it goes on, “should work with other nations to facilitate adherence to international norms that prioritise an open and secure internet”. That means reducing “the impact of site-blocking regimes”, supporting “cross-border digital trade” and preventing the break up of “the global internet”. 

The internet group’s submission discusses various uses of web-blocks in different countries, including by those governments that simply seek to censor what content their citizens can consume for political reasons. However, it also considers efforts to block access to specific websites on copyright grounds. 

Web-blocking has been an anti-piracy tactic of choice for the music and movie industries for many years now. Quite how it works differs from country to country, though usually a court or government agency issues an injunction ordering local internet service providers to block access to specific websites which, it has been deemed, primarily exist to facilitate copyright infringement. 

In some countries, including the UK, web-blocking on copyright grounds has become a routine practice. However, where an ISP has blocked a website, there are various ways users can circumvent the blockade, including by using a Virtual Private Network or an alternative DNS resolver, other than the one provided by the user’s ISP. 

That has led to copyright owners seeking web-blocking injunctions against other kinds of internet companies, including DNS resolvers. In Germany, Sony Music went after DNS resolver Quad9, while Universal Music took action against the Cloudflare DNS resolver 1.1.1.1 through courts in both Germany and Italy. 

A key criticism of this approach is that, unlike when a web-blocking order is issued against a local ISP, the web-blocks targeting DNS resolvers can impact on users globally, not just in the country where the court or agency issuing the order has jurisdiction. 

In its submission to the USTR, the Internet Infrastructure Coalition hones in on a recent web-blocking order in France instigated by broadcaster Canal+, which sought to prevent access to unlicensed sports streaming sites. The order targeted DNS resolvers operated by Google, Cloudflare and Cisco. 

Critical of that order, the submission says, “the court ordered the blocking despite the entry of evidence in the case that the impact on piracy would be minimal, that it might require the sites to be blocked globally, and that it would require companies to build new technology on top of the global DNS systems that make up the internet in order to comply”. 

The French court also “provided no opportunity for a stay of the order pending appeal as to whether the blocking was proportionate and consistent with European Union human rights requirements”, the submission goes on. That created “a risk that companies simply operating part of the global internet would face penalties for not complying with French requirements”. 

“As a result of that decision, one of the three companies opted to stop providing their global DNS service within France”, it adds, that being Cisco’s OpenDNS

The Internet Infrastructure Coalition brings together a wide range of internet businesses, including domain and hosting companies, and includes the likes of Amazon, Google and Cloudflare as members. 

Its submission is part of the US Trade Representative’s ongoing consultation on foreign trade barriers, which organisations representing copyright owners have also contributed to, including the Motion Picture Association

Interestingly, the MPA would like web-blocking to be introduced within the US, where to date it has not really been available as an anti-piracy tactic for music and movie companies. Meanwhile, the Internet Infrastructure Coalition wants the US government to work to restrict the use of web-blocking in other countries.