Cloud-based web application platform Vercel is among the latest companies to find their servers blocked in Spain due to LaLiga’s ongoing IPTV anti-piracy campaign. In a statement, Vercel’s CEO and the company’s principal engineer slam “indiscriminate” blocking as an “unaccountable form of internet censorship” that has prevented legitimate customers from conducting their daily business.
Since early February, Spain has faced unprecedented yet avoidable nationwide disruption to previously functioning, entirely legitimate online services. 
A court order obtained by top-tier football league LaLiga in partnership with telecommunications giant Telefonica, authorized ISP-level blocking across all major ISPs to prevent public access to pirate IPTV services and websites.
In the first instance, controversy centered on Cloudflare, where shared IP addresses were blocked by local ISPs when pirates were detected using them, regardless of the legitimate Cloudflare customers using them too.
When legal action by Cloudflare failed, in part due to a judge’s insistence that no evidence of damage to third parties had been proven before the court, joint applicants LaLiga and Telefonica continued with their blocking campaign. It began affecting innocent third parties early February and hasn’t stopped since.
Vercel Latest Target
US-based Vercel describes itself as a “complete platform for the web.” Through the provision of cloud infrastructure and developer tools, users can deploy code from their computers and have it up and running in just seconds. Vercel is not a ‘rogue’ hosting provider that ignores copyright complaints, it takes its responsibilities very seriously.
Yet it became evident last week that blocking instructions executed by Telefonica-owned telecoms company Movistar were once again blocking innocent users, this time customers of Vercel.
Movistar informed of yet more adverse blocking 
As the thread on X continued, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch was asked whether Vercel had “received any requests to remove illegal content before the blocking occurs?”
Vercel Principal Engineer Matheus Fernandes answered quickly.
No takedown requests, just blocks 
Additional users were soon airing their grievances; ChatGPT blocked regularly on Sundays, a whole day “ruined” due to unwarranted blocking of AI code editor Cursor, blocking at Cloudflare, GitHub, BunnyCDN, the list goes on.
Vercel Slams “Unaccountable Internet Censorship”
In a joint statement last week, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch and Principal Engineer Matheus Fernandes cited the LaLiga/Telefonica court order and reported that ISPs are “blocking entire IP ranges, not specific domains or content.”
Among them, the IP addresses 66.33.60.129 and 76.76.21.142, “used by businesses like Spanish startup Tinybird, Hello Magazine, and others operating on Vercel, despite no affiliations with piracy in any form.”
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The details concerning this latest blocking disaster and the many others since February, are unavailable to the public. This lack of transparency is consistent with most if not all dynamic blocking programs around the world. With close to zero transparency, there is no accountability when blocking takes a turn for the worse, and no obvious process through which innocent parties can be fairly heard.
[…]
The hayahora.futbol project is especially impressive; it gathers evidence of blocking events, including dates, which ISPs implemented blocking, how long the blocks remained in place, and which legitimate services were wrongfully blocked.
[…]
Source: Vercel Slams LaLiga Piracy Blocks as “Unaccountable Internet Censorship” * TorrentFreak
So guys streaming a *game* can close down huge sections of internet without accountability? How did a law like that happen without some serious corruption?
Robin Edgar
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