Report on site-blocking of NHL games “expected shortly,” documents show
By Ahmad Hathout
BELL MEDIA IS ASKING the Federal Court to order third-party Internet service providers to block from view the websites of streamers who it says will likely be illegally broadcasting the FIFA World Cup matches starting on Nov. 20.
The Montreal-based company – which has exclusive broadcasting rights in Canada to the games that will run until Dec. 18 – has already filed a request last week asking the court to force the unknown defendant streamers to stop broadcasting their channels, which include sports networks TSN and its French-language equivalent RDS.
Court documents seen by Cartt.ca now show that Bell has prepared a draft order and arguments for a “dynamic” website blocking order until the end of the World Cup, forcing ISPs to actively restrict from view streaming sites that appear to show the games in Canada without having to get court consent for each new batch of websites that pop up.
“The only effective remedy available to stop blatant and widespread infringement of the Plaintiffs’ rights in Canada and the irreparable harm that is caused for the Plaintiffs” is “to temporarily and dynamically block” access through the ISPs, said Bell in the documents.
Bell has asked for an expedited hearing – it says “before early October” – to ensure that a block order can be in effect before the games begin and because its lawyers are busy with other files. Dates listed in the court document include Sept. 30, Oct. 3-5 and 7.
Bell will have the backing of precedent, as it and other broadcasters had, for the first time, already obtained from the court a narrow dynamic blocking order for a small number of games of the NHL hockey playoffs being streamed this past spring.
As part of that NHL order, the broadcasters had to produce a report of the results to demonstrate the block’s effectiveness for future court actions. Bell said in a filing on Sept. 16 that it had obtained a confidential version of that report on Aug. 26, with a public one “expected shortly.”
Bell said that it waited for that report to be completed before moving to file the FIFA claim. “These reports confirm that such an Order is effective to address media piracy by delivering measurable benefits for a very low cost,” Bell said.
