Internet providers in Chile have blocked 1,954 URLs linked to unlicensed television streaming services between June and October, according to figures released this week by the telecoms regulator, Subtel.
The blocks rest on a court order. Early this year the 19th Civil Court of Santiago sided with Warner Bros. in an action against MagisTV, FlujoTV and XuperTV, three widely used Latin American streaming brands, ordering all variants of the services blocked and instructing Subtel to notify the country's internet providers. Subtel sent those orders in January.
Eight providers have implemented the blocks: GTD, DirecTV, Entel, WOM, Mundo, ClaroVTR, Netline and Movistar. The lists arrive in regular batches.
The blocked domains now extend well beyond the three services named in the ruling. Subtel also lists Cuevana, Oleada TV, Stella TV, TeleLatino, PelisPlus, Cinecalidad and Fútbol Libre, together with their variants and mirror sites.
Subtel's own announcement does not lead with copyright. Its headline puts digital security and data protection first, and the regulator says the procedure aims to protect citizens' privacy and personal data, warning that unauthorised streaming platforms can collect sensitive information and leave users exposed to data theft and fraud.
“By installing these informal apps, users expose their bank passwords, personal data, and devices to hacks and scams, without any kind of support or protection,” said the undersecretary of telecommunications, Romina Garrido, in remarks translated from Spanish. “When using a pirate app or site, users hand over the key to their personal data to unknown organizations.”
Garrido also pointed users towards licensed services. “With these blocks, we break the chain of cybercrime and promote a legal offering that actually guarantees data protection and support, such as the one offered by Chile's formal telecommunications industry,” she said.
The argument is not new to the case. Warner's legal action also argued that the platforms put users' personal data at risk, as local media reported in February.
The expansion of the list beyond the three named brands was arrived at by interpretation. According to La Tercera, other sites were added on that basis, after Subtel, the Public Prosecutor's Office, Warner and the Alliance Against Digital Piracy agreed a protocol for deciding which should be blocked. In practice the Alliance compiles the lists of URLs, IP addresses and domains, Subtel forwards them to the providers, and the providers apply the blocks nationwide. Emol reports that the order covers any domain, subdomain, IP address, link, redirect or mirror site reproducing audiovisual content without authorisation.
The blocking has not removed the material. BioBioChile found that several of the targeted sites remain online, and TorrentFreak reported that alternatives and copycats using the same brands are still easy to find. October has been the busiest month so far, with 765 URLs blocked and days still to run.
This is where the framing repays attention. The measure is presented not as the enforcement of a copyright ruling but as the protection of citizens' privacy and personal data. On that basis the blocked URLs are the output, and the output is 1,954.
A copyright programme would be judged on whether the material is still available, which is an awkward test when several of the sites are still there. A data protection programme is judged on how much data it has protected, and every new mirror site presents a fresh opportunity to protect some.
The supply is secure. Each blocked domain can be succeeded by a subdomain, a redirect or a mirror, all of which the order already covers, and each successor must then be blocked in turn. This newspaper has looked for the point at which the programme would end, and cannot locate one in the protocol.
Our analysts regard this as the strongest feature of the design. A finite list would eventually be completed, after which the public would have to be left unprotected. An inexhaustible one can be worked through monthly, in batches, for as long as the internet continues to be arranged in the usual way.
By that measure October was the most successful month on record. The Department of Unnecessary Research is content to report the result plainly: Chileans have never had their personal data protected 765 times in four weeks before.