Rights Holders Move Closer to Imposing Website Blocks on VPN Providers
Rights Holders, having recently succeeded in forcing even some third-party public Domain Name System (DNS) resolvers to block websites that have been found to facilitate internet copyright infringement (piracy), are now turning their attention to major Virtual Private Networks (VPN) like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, and others.
For those out there who may still be unfamiliar. A VPN essentially encrypts and routes your internet traffic through a different protocol and server (i.e. a private network connection that runs over the public internet). Remote workers often use VPNs to connect with their office network while at home and ordinary consumers may use one too, such as to help keep their connections secure while remote working (not a panacea), as well as remote desktop control, staying anonymous online or for avoiding internet filters (e.g. hotel wifi) and geo-blocking etc.
Suffice to say that VPNs are an incredibly useful tool, although they can also be used to help people circumvent website blocking measures that might have been imposed by ISPs, including those that were introduced through the courts. But until recently Rights Holders would have found it difficult to extend such blocking orders to VPNs, although several court successes against public DNS providers in other countries have started to change that.
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According to Torrent Freak, Rights Holders in France are now seeking to extend site-blocking measures to VPN providers, with Canal+ and the football league LFP requesting new court orders that could compel NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Cyberghost, ProtonVPN, and Surfshark to introduce blocking orders. As usual, the focus here is on some of the market’s largest VPN providers.
The VPN Trust Initiative (VTI), which represents VPNs, said (here):
“The VPN Trust Initiative (VTI), part of the i2Coalition (Internet Infrastructure Coalition), stands firmly against any request for French courts to mandate VPN services to block access to potentially infringing streaming websites. While VTI members unequivocally oppose the misuse of VPNs for illegal activities, this move not only misplaces blame but also threatens to undermine cybersecurity, privacy, and digital freedom for millions of French residents.
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VPNs are not facilitators of piracy. They neither host, store, nor promote copyrighted material. Such content is not discovered and referenced via privacy-focused VPN tools. Targeting VPN services for activities they do not enable or promote is a misguided and disproportionate approach.”
The VTI’s statement goes on to argue that restrictions against VPNs are typically only prominent in countries such as China, Russia, Myanmar and Iran, amongst others. Such measures are often introduced via those states under the guise of protecting national interests or preventing illegal content, albeit with the real intention of censoring speech and preventing open access to the internet.
At present this case is only focused upon France, but the result could impact or fuel similar cases or services in other countries, such as the UK. Admittedly, this is still very much a game of whack-a-mole for Rights Holders, and we don’t yet know how much success they’ll have, although it has long been expected that commercial VPN providers would be their next target.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Our data security and privacy is under relentless attack from so many angles. Our own governments, hostile governments, corporations, criminals, now “rights holders” and the courts. It was recently revealed the UK government has secretly ordered Apple to put a backdoor in its backup encryption software so the government may pry into them (and of course by implication anybody else able to open the backdoor once the details are inevitably leaked). Very worrying stuff, especially the secrecy, and nobody in power is standing up for what shoud be basic rights.
What right do you believe you have to act illegally?
There is no Apple back door – I don’t know where this nonsense comes from.
I’m waiting for “if you do no wrong you have nothing to hide” comments. No, I like my privacy, I like being able to close my front door, close the curtains, and do or say whatever I want without having to look over my shoulder.
Do not get me started on the advertisers for whom, displaying an ad is no longer enough and they want to follow us across the Internet and claim “legitimate interest”, or the websites that want you to pay them to still show you ads, but not follow you across the Internet.
As for “rights holders” the system is a mess. Increased competition from streaming services drives up prices because more services are competing for the same content and of course, that means higher prices for you and I. Throw into that, the addition of ads and crackdowns on account sharing, and it’s easy to see why piracy is starting to look more popular.
We need an Army of Mario’s!
Its the only way to rebalance society from the rich and powerful who would like to abuse us.
piracy is a basic right now?
@anon
You misspelled privacy.
@84.08khz “What right do you believe you have to act illegally?” — None and nothing I said implies that.
“There is no Apple back door – I don’t know where this nonsense comes from.” — It was widely reported including on the BBC who are unlikely to publish without credible sources. Of course nobody will publicly confirm anything because the government have conveniently made it a criminal offence to do so. I do not believe the backup encryption is currently compromised but it could well become so without notice.
@anon “piracy is a basic right now? — Privacy is a basic right, not piracy, I know they are similar looking words but have totally different meaning. We should have a right not to have the government or anybody else snoop through our data. We should have a right to know if we are using compromised data services. And we should have a right to use VPN services to browse anonymously should we so choose. And yes when VPNs rightly refuse to snoop on their users in order to block these sites the rights holders will look to block the VPN services themselves.
The Apple back door request is only a rumour at present as the same law makes it illegal for the company the request has been made to, to make it public. And it is likely to be sharing the data with the US government. They all share data they find. So Starmer gets to spy on UK citizens and the US government its citizens. Apple is also rumoured to be considering removing its iCloud services from the UK as a result which would have a significant impact on users. The law Starmer is using I don’t believe is new either, but I’m not sure who came up with it.
But it is as you say an attack from several angles in privacy.
As John above says, our rights and freedoms online are under grave threat. But a little technical knowledge goes a long way. You can set up a VPS cloud server for as little as £2/month, and create a very simple Linux-based WireGuard VPN and route your traffic through that. Many routers, even domestic ones, support WireGuard now, so you can tunnel your entire home network if you want to. And when you travel, your traffic is routed via the UK, so you get the normal ad-free BBC website, for example. A bit of learning and there’s little need for a commercial VPN service – and, presumably, it would get around these proposed new blocks.
This is why you should roll your own VPN just install wireshark on a VPS
They are unlikely to be able to go after every single cloud provider/VPS provider and even if they did, find one not in the West. Sorted
I assume you mean WireGuard? Although Wireshark is also a very handy tool 🙂
so they want a backdoor? what happens if hackers use this backdoor? because if you purposely leave a door open someone who shouldnt have keys will eventually make use of it.
It’s fairly simple and easy to achieve in encryption to do what the government are asking Apple to do.
You simply ensure that each message is encrypted using the public key of the recipient AND the governments own public key as well. This way either the gov or the recipient can decrypt the message and read the plaintext.
Of course this leads to the possiblitiy that a rogue agent in the government could read your private messages and do something nefarious with it. It also means that the governments private key could be stolen and leaked allowing anyone with the key to read any message. Of course Apple could just revoke the key and issue a new one but by then the damage is already done.
I think this is dumb and Apple should absolutely not do this. But I also think the government are desperate to spy on everyone and everything. And if anyone thinks this is for “safeguarding” kids or stopping terrorism then my response is : LMFAO sure it is
Yep and another risk is that once the software is programmed to accept third-party public keys that whole system is an attack vector as well. It means you don’t even need the government’s private key to leak you just need to get your public key onto the target’s device.
welcome to 1984 big brother is always looking over your shoulder
As others have already mentioned, a cheap VPS with WireGuard installed allows you to watch, stream, download, or bypass geoblocking. While I personally don’t use torrents to watch content illegally, I do use a VPN to share Netflix, Disney+, Max, and to watch Canal+ in the UK (CL, PL, LL) at a lower cost than I would pay in the UK.
Do you need to have a VPS based in that country to achieve this? Say for example I wanted to watch Australian Netflix. Do I need an Australian VPS provider?
@Anthony That depends on the geoblock in use by the service you want to use, both their rules, and how robust that is..
Some of the comments here are misguided at best. There are no privacy implications from blocking access to specific URLs or IP addresses, whether directly or via a VPN. Nor is there any requirement for a backdoor.
As for the suggestion to find a VPN not in the West, that’s not the best advice if you do value your privacy! Although of course many of the piracy sites come with free malware anyway, so perhaps it doesn’t really matter.
This news story is truly terrifying. This evil National Socialist Labour Party we live under is looking for any reason to lock people up for simply criticising it or any of its open border policies. Therefore, a VPN is the only protection people have from the totalitarian dictatorship looking to oppress them.
At present, this is only happening in the French courts, not the UK. But it should be said that cracking down on piracy was something common with both the past and present governments.
Ironically for the libs who believe the corporate media, Donald Trump is actually protecting the world from totalitarian dictatorships. Specifically in the UK there are many reports that Keir Stalin and the communist labour party are watering down their totalitarian online bill (which gives them the power to steal 10% of the money of any company that does not censor on their behalf) just to avoid tariffs
It’s a 2 for 1 deal, they protect their tech sector while feeding the people of Europe from censorship
socialist? l thought we still had the conservative party.. only difference being is that they call themselves the labour party.
The VPN companies should and most likely will tell these government departments to do one, the overreach by governments everywhere is ridiculous
I see outrage online over the UK asking for a backdoor to be created into the iCloud service, the UK were not the first and wont be the last to ask for exactly that
The US government one of the very worst offenders despite Americans insistence it’s the “Land of the free” yeahhhhh right
USA Land of the fascist for the next 4 years and maybe longer “you’ll never have to vote again”..
VPN Fans: “I don’t want my ISP / Government / Local Police looking at my internet traffic”
Also VPN Fans: “Lets pay for a subscription to a random VPN provider in god knows where, because they DEFINITALY wont look at my traffic, it says they wont on their website”
Third-world VPN providers won’t punish you if they don’t like what they see. It is a sad state of affairs that I trust anyone with my data than my own government. At the end of the day what is China going to do to me if they don’t like what they see me doing. Then ask. What would the UK government do…
The police is literally registering anything non criminal that they don’t like
A random VPN based on the Belize will not turn up to your door to arrest you for posting a meme on facebook unlike the UK govt which even before the 2024 mass arrests, back in 2023 there have been a whopping 10x TEN TIMES more than Russia, the regime they call authoritarian
@84.08khz read the Washington Post – https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/07/apple-encryption-backdoor-uk/
Perhaps most worry about the Home Office is the following statement “Also that month, the FBI, National Security Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency joined in recommending dozens of steps to counter the Chinese hacking spree, including “Ensure that traffic is end-to-end encrypted to the maximum extent possible.”
Officials in Canada, New Zealand and Australia endorsed the recommendations. Those in the United Kingdom did not.”
and how this will prevent China (or anyone else) from hacking practices? These days they jump via the proxies running on residential computers or hacked no longer supported routers.