By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Federal Court ordered Tuesday that internet service providers block the IP addresses associated with alleged unauthorized restreamers of live baseball games exclusively owned by Rogers and Groupe TVA.
The court also ordered the operators of the identified IP addresses to quit redistributing the signal of those games, after Rogers and Groupe TVA brought the action last month.
The decision is just the latest dynamic blocking order that builds on the precedent set by the axing of illegal National Hockey League streams and the most recent World Cup soccer games, which carried the novelty that the games had yet to begin when an order was issued.
A dynamic block allows a single agent to update a target block list of IP addresses associated with the infringing operator without the need to get court approval for each new address. Canadians trying to access the games through those IP addresses will be greeted by a blocking message.
The court outlined that the block will still be confined to target periods, namely when the Toronto Blue Jays play. After the games are completed, the third parties would be given notice to unblock the servers. A report must also be filed at the end of the blocking period to determine the effectiveness of the order.
The third parties will also have some leeway to suspend blocking for reasons including there is the potential to over-block, to ensure the integrity and functionality of their networks, and to respond and prevent security threats, according to the order.
Those ISPs that cannot take blocking action immediately will need to do so no later than seven days after the date of the order.
Like previous blocking orders, the plaintiffs will be required to compensate third parties up to a maximum of $50,000 to comply with the order.
