"Cloudflare shows it wants to stop piracy"
The piece covers the dispute between U.S. internet infrastructure company Cloudflare and Italian authorities over anti-piracy enforcement under Italy’s controversial Piracy Shield system. Italy’s communications regulator AGCOM fined Cloudflare about €14 million for refusing to block access to pirate sites via its public DNS resolver (1.1.1.1) as required under the law, which mandates that network operators block reported pirate domains and IP addresses quickly — often within 30 minutes of notification. Cloudflare’s CEO, Matthew Prince, has pushed back fiercely, calling the requirement technically unreasonable, lacking due process, and tantamount to internet censorship. He has threatened legal challenges and even potential withdrawal of Cloudflare services or infrastructure from Italy, citing risks to internet stability and implications for events like the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics. The standoff highlights broader tensions between copyright enforcement, national digital sovereignty, and the technical realities of operating global internet services.
