Site Blocking Orders Come To Canada: GoldTV.biz

In an important decision released Friday, the Federal Court of Canada issued the first Canadian site blocking order against sites that predominantly facilitate copyright infringement. The order made by Justice Gleeson, in a carefully reasoned decision in Bell Media Inc. et al v GOLDTV.BIZ 2019 FC 1432, ordered certain ISPs in Canada to block access to pirate subscription streaming sites (GoldTV.biz and GoldTV.ca) that were infringing the copyrights of the plaintiffs Bell Media Inc., Groupe TVA Inc, and Rogers Media Inc.

The order was granted following two prior injunction orders which were not effective against the anonymous site operators to stop the unauthorized subscription services of the plaintiffs' programming over the Internet. The injunction was opposed by Teksavvy but was unopposed by the other ISPs, Eastlink, TELUS, Distributel (except with respect a term in the order), Cogeco, Fido, Videotron, Bell Canada, and Rogers Communications.