In Spain, LaLiga has been fighting for years to stop the broadcast of matches without a license and has already obtained court orders to block websites and attack the method known as cardsharing. The other major way of retransmission of unauthorized content is the IPTV lists and to avoid it he was born Piracy Shield in Italy.
The initiative was known before the start of the Serie A Calcio season 2023 – 2024, the launch took place at the end of 2023 but it was not until January 31, 2024 when it was fully implemented. Now Neighboring countries and their respective entities pay attention to the Italian caseimplementation and success, since the dissemination of unauthorized content is a scourge for the entities that generate and distribute it that do not understand borders.
So technology has been put at their service to try to stop it. Thus, LaLiga has automated tools to restrict access to IPTV platforms and web pages, and in Italy that Piracy Shield has the same objective. But let’s go deeper: in this article we tell you What Privacy Shield is and how it works and what potential challenges it encounters.
What Privacy Shield is and how it works
Although we already know that Privacy Shield comes from Italy, more specifically who is behind it is the Authority for the Guarantee of Communications in Italy (AGCOM). In the technical document leaked by Torrent Freak They detail that it is an automated platform and also a machine-to-machine platform management software through which those who own the copyright can report violations relating to its content to take action as soon as possible.
As a consequence, telecoms and ISPs may be requested to remove unauthorized content without requiring judicial authorization. In fact, this happens very quickly: depending on the form and procedure, it is able to execute it in less than 30 minutes after the notice of infringement. In this way, if it is detected that a football match is being broadcast irregularly, Piracy Shield has the capacity to act before the match ends. What’s more, even before the first half ends.
Piracy Shield goes one step beyond simply blocking web pages that spread protected content without authorization, including platforms that offer this content such as IPTV, but also DNS and VPN services applied to bypass blocks and even search engines like Google, which will be required to remove those sites from search results. More concretely:
All parties involved in any capacity in the accessibility of illegally disseminated content – and therefore also, by way of example and not limitation – the providers of VPN and open DNS services, must execute the blocks requested by the Authority. [AGCOM] including through accreditation on the Piracy Shield platform or otherwise implementing measures that prevent the user from reaching that content.”
The technical and non-technical challenges of Privacy Shield
Leaving aside what it means to be an automated tool that acts without the need for a court order, in summary the operation is as follows: the intellectual property is reported through Privacy Shield, which verifies the complaint with the relevant evidence, sends a order to ISPs requesting blocking and all this occurs in a matter of half an hour. Making it possible requires a technical deployment to consider.
Although we have been hearing for years that IPv4 IP addresses are running out, AGCOM is not going to hesitate when it comes to blocking as many IPs as necessary. The question is in how many IP addresses will it be able to block in that time range of 30 minutes after the complaint, since the system will have a limited ticket management capacity and exceeding it would mean collapse.
Returning to the topic of search engines, we will have to see how the transfer of information from Privacy Shield to entities such as Google and how the Mountain View company and others implement a removal procedure, both of results and advertisements from websites that broadcast unauthorized content.
Nor can we forget VPN and the companies behind it and what their position and adaptation will be in the face of a measure that restricts part of the tools they offer. Furthermore, logically it will depend on the geographical location and your circumstances.
After several weeks of operation, there have already been Blocking IP addresses from legitimate sites, services and platformsrevealing another problem: the lack of precision and the lack of a method for detecting and correcting errors.
Likewise your application may have effects on net neutralitysince if those who have intellectual rights can request the blocking of content, the doors are opened to a two-speed Internet where legal content is prioritized over independent content or simply non-commercial content.
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