Namecheap Flagged for EU ‘Piracy Watchlist’ After Failing to Block Infringing Sites

Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has submitted its recommendations for the EU's Counterfeiting and Piracy Watchlist. The group notes that its court-ordered site blocking efforts appear to be paying off but several intermediaries could be more cooperative. This includes domain registrar Namecheap, which refuses to block customers' sites without a U.S. court order.

Supported by Hollywood and other content industries, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has a long and well-established track record.

The group celebrated its 25th anniversary on Monday, with now-retired director Tim Kuik receiving a royal decoration as Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his achievements.

While Kuik undeniably proved to be a major player in the anti-piracy field in recent decades, BREIN’s work continues without him. BREIN’s recommendations for the EU’s upcoming Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List were made public a few days ago and include several notable developments.

We’ve recently highlighted how the MPA and Sky called out various pirate sites and services, as well as intermediaries who reportedly could do more to combat piracy. BREIN’s submission continues down the same path with, again, a strong focus on intermediaries.

“All stakeholders in the internet ecosystem, including hosting providers, DNS providers, cloud services, advertising networks, payment processors, social media platforms, and search engines, should proactively work towards reducing support for well-known infringing sites,” BREIN writes in its submission.

Evolving Hosting Challenge

BREIN highlights the importance of the “Know Your Customer” (KYC) principle, arguing that intermediaries should properly identify their customers. They believe this principle should legally apply to all intermediaries. This would help enforcement efforts, as pirate sites and services often operate anonymously.

The evolving hosting landscape is one of the challenges highlighted by BREIN. Large Dutch hosting providers are increasingly positioning themselves as “mere conduit” services. They provide content neutral services to resellers, who ultimately serve the pirate customers. Without KYC requirements, however, it’s often difficult to identify the ultimate targets.

“These resellers are often however not cooperative or not even responsive. And even if they are responsive and willing to provide information, the information is usually not verified.”

BREIN nominates several hosting companies for the EU’s piracy watchlist, including Amarutu Technology, Private Layer, Alexhost, Virtual Systems, SERVERS TECH, and Packet Exchange. These companies can be characterized as ‘not responsive’ or ‘not cooperative’, the group writes.

Namecheap Doesn’t Cooperate

In addition to hosting providers, BREIN also mentions several domain name services, including Sarek Oy and 1337 Services. The latter is best known under the name Njalla, the privacy-focused domain registration intermediary founded by Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde.

These companies reportedly fail to respond to BREIN’s requests. This critique is not new, however, as other rightsholder groups have lodged similar complaints in the past.

A more surprising entry comes in the form of domain registrar Namecheap. The U.S. company is a large player internationally and typically adheres to the law. However, BREIN claims that Namecheap has proven ‘uncooperative’ when it comes to voluntarily blocking pirate sites.

BREIN says that it reached out to Namecheap multiple times over the past years. Among other things, the company was asked to take action against domain names that Dutch ISPs have to block in the Netherlands.

Presumably, BREIN hoped that Namecheap would voluntarily block these sites as Google does in the Netherlands. However, Namecheap doesn’t want to take action in response to a foreign court order, where the company is not listed as a party, and says it will only share customer details when presented with a U.S. court order.

“BREIN has requested Namecheap in several instances to cease providing their services to these evidently illegal websites that are now blocked in the Netherlands, as well as to provide BREIN with the customer details,” BREIN writes.

“Namecheap has never complied with these requests and always insists on a US court order and is therefore willfully uncooperative as these cases clearly concern evidently illegal websites.”

Namecheap and other companies called out in submissions are not explicitly accused of breaking any laws. However, it’s clear that BREIN and other rightsholders are frustrated by the lack of voluntary cooperation from these intermediaries.

Blocking Works

BREIN’s submission has a heavy focus on intermediaries but also reports that Dutch pirate site blocking efforts are paying off. These blockades target The Pirate Bay, 1337x, EZTV, KickassTorrents, YTS, Flixtor, Lookmovie, Anna’s Archive and Library Genesis.

In addition to the platforms’ main domains, the dynamic Dutch blocking orders allow BREIN to add new proxies and mirrors to the list as soon as they appear.

One might expect that the total list of blocked domains would grow over time, as new alternative domains appear on the scene. However, BREIN’s data shows that this is not the case. The number of blocking targets is relatively stable, with many proxies and mirrors disappearing off the radar.

The chart above shows, for example, that the number of blocked Pirate Bay domains dropped from more than 200 in 2018, to around ‘just’ 50 today.

“It is also striking that over time the average number of proxies and mirror websites per platform decreases so that the total number of blocked sites has not increased. Apparently, many proxy sites give up if they are blocked long enough,” BREIN writes.

Emerging Threats: AI and Vinyl

In addition to traditional pirate sites, the submission also lists several more recent “trends”. This includes IPTV services, which continue to gain traction. Interestingly, vinyl is also listed in this section as a popular counterfeiting target.

“The revival of vinyl simultaneously causes a rise in the manufacturing and selling of unauthorized vinyl in the form of counterfeit and bootleg albums originating within and outside of the EU,” BREIN writes.

While phonograph records are by no means a new technology, as they date back more than a century, it is easier to manufacture and sell counterfeits today. And with more music fans buying vinyl records than CDs, BREIN sees it as a trending threat.

At the other end of the spectrum, BREIN mentions artificial intelligence. The group has previously gone after ‘illegally’ compiled datasets that consist of copyrighted works, such as books. It wants to make sure that the EU keeps a close eye on developments and notes that the arrival of the European AI Act is a positive step.

In conclusion, BREIN’s recommendations highlight the complex and ever-evolving landscape of online piracy. While site blocking has reportedly proven to be an effective tool, the group stresses the need for greater cooperation from intermediaries and heightened vigilance in addressing new threats.

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A copy of BREIN’s full submission to the European Commission is available here (pdf)

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