Canadian Federal Court Approves the Blocking of More Pirate Websites

• The Federal Court of Canada approved a new blocking order against new GoldTV domains.
• The rightsholders behind the action have secured a provision to enable them to extend the blocks as required.
• GoldTV will now seek for new domains again, so we’re set for a whack-a-mole game from now on.

Two months ago, Canada’s Federal Court decided to order all ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in the country to block all GoldTV domains. This was the first time that ISP-level blocks took place in Canada, so thousands of citizens expressed their opposition to the decision, fearing that it was the dawn of internet censorship in the country. Fast forward to today, and the Federal Court of Canada has decided to extend its previous order to cover new domains that GoldTV and its partners secured in the meantime.

As it only took a couple of days for the ISPs to comply with the court’s order back in November, GoldTV had to act quickly in order not to lose subscribers and not to cause problems to its resellers. This was part of their wishful thinking to be left alone by the court and the rightsholders, as that would require chasing them again and again, which costs money to do. Still, the party didn’t last long, and the court is back with the approval of a new order only two months after the last one.

In fact, the Canadian court order was updated last month with the addition of a provision for Bell, Groupe TVA, and Rogers to be able to extend the blockage to more domains. This passed under the radar for news outlets, but the rightsholders knew what they were doing. The new addresses that have been added to the blocking order now are ‘gold.myiptvplanet.com’, ‘live4k.online’, ‘pctvhd.net’, ‘beex.me’, and several of their subdomains. Moreover, these names were published only after the new order was approved, so as not to give the pirate platform time to respond and secure new domains once again. This means that the subscribers will experience the maximum downtime.

Of course, that is not to say that GoldTV will give up. On the contrary, this is a case that holds great significance for the piracy scene in the country, and the platform is bound to seek new domains again. It could take the ISPs another two weeks to comply with the new order, so there’s some time to respond even after the media companies did all they did under the table. As for the subscribers, using a VPN in Canada is starting to make more and more sense as we move forward in time.

Do you think that we’re on the verge of an internet censorship age in Canada, or are all these fears exaggerated? Let us know where you stand in the comments down below, or join the discussion on our socials, on Facebook and Twitter.