Canadian Court Launches First Ever ISP Order To Ban A Piracy Website

A Federal court in Canada has asked ISPs (internet service providers) to ban GoldTV (a pirate IPTV service) in a case that can result in to further censorship of internet in the nation, as per media. The major ISPs in Canada, comprising Bell, Rogers, and Videotron, have been making an effort for such a verdict for quite some time. Now, a countrywide banning order has been awarded, supposedly for the first time, and critics fear it can result in to further censorship of lawful content.

Many ISPs in the Canada, comprising Rogers, Bell, and Videotron, also act as cable suppliers and in some instances, broadcasters. Joined later by Rogers, Bell Canada started pushing regulator of Canada, the CRTC, to make a blacklist of websites that allow users download pirated movies and TV shows. All ISPs would then be needed to ban such websites.

The CRTC refused that notion, so the ISPs filed a court case. In spite of arguments to the contrary, the judge claimed that the move would not harm freedom of expression or net neutrality. ISPs have hence been asked to ban access within 15 Days to GoldTV.

Ontario-located TekSavvy was one of the few ISPs to combat the action, claiming it would not be appropriate or effective. The firm claimed noted that users can easily go around the edge using VPN tech and that it can result in a slippery slope that might put an unwarranted enforcement load on ISPs.

“If the plaintiffs were victorious in getting a site-banning order in this instance, there is no doubt that they might employ it as an example to get other site-banning orders, whether regarding copyright breach or otherwise,” it claimed. “TekSavvy can be encountered with thousands of sites to monitor or block, exponentially elevating the prices of maintaining and operating a site-banning system and overwhelming capacity of TekSavvy.”