Sky Reports Cloudflare, Google, and Facebook as Piracy Facilitators to the European Commission

• British broadcasting company Sky underlined Cloudflare's, Google's, and Facebook’s role in facilitating IPTV piracy.
• Besides notorious pirate IPTV hosting providers, Sky’s submission to the E.C. tackles big companies’ failure to deter pirates.
• Facebook’s Marketplace policies, Google’s takedown approach, and Cloudflare’s abuse by pirate websites are in the report’s spotlight.

The involvement of intermediaries like Cloudflare, Google, and Facebook in facilitating IPTV piracy was recently highlighted by U.K. broadcaster Sky in a report submission to the European Commission (EC) as the company prepares to update its 'Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List.' 

Sky's detailed report focuses on notorious pirate IPTV hosting providers and emphasizes the role third-party intermediaries play in the piracy ecosystem. The broadcaster stresses that large-scale commercial piracy extends beyond rightsholders, affecting E.U. Member States' tax revenues and societal structures.

Sky also points out numerous non-responsive hosting providers outside Europe, notably ‘RESERVED, ZZ' [AS27161], for 284,454 unique 'infringing incidents' from January to July 2024.

Despite previous objections, Cloudflare is once again identified as a top infringing host, with Sky reporting over 107,307 infringing incidents linked to the company this year. The broadcaster accuses Cloudflare's services of being exploited by pirates to hide actual hosts.

Cloudflare, through its Trusted Reporter Program, offers rightsholder members access to pirate site IP addresses, aiming to address some of the issues raised by Sky. The broadcaster argues that the company’s infrastructure is still "easily exploited" by pirate services to mask true hosts.

The report also criticizes Facebook for ineffective measures against piracy-enabling devices. Between February and July 2024, Sky reported over 16,500 listings related to piracy-enabling devices, including pre-loaded Amazon Firesticks, on Facebook Marketplace, suggesting the need for more robust countermeasures from Meta to prevent these listings and deter repeat offenders.

Sky's submission also highlights Google's role in the proliferation of infringing content. Google has been criticized for its approach to handling takedown requests, specifically, its refusal to act against entire domains linked to piracy, allowing illegal streaming sites to persist despite numerous individual takedown requests.

While the company complies with takedown requests for specific URLs, Sky criticizes its reluctance to de-list entire domains that promote piracy, pointing out the lack of functional APIs for efficient submission of removal requests.

Google’s existing tools, such as the Trusted Copyright Removal Program (TCRP), provide high-volume submitters with advanced options for bulk copyright removal requests. However, Sky notes that these tools are not currently addressing the core issues at hand, particularly those involving sites promoting VPN use to bypass geo-restrictions, an area where the DMCA is less effective.

Recently, Google asked the court to dismiss lawsuit claims accusing the tech giant of profiting from piracy, as several well-regarded publishers alleged Google knowingly supports the promotion of copyright-infringing sellers.