Abstract
In the fight against illegal football streaming, Italy introduced Piracy Shield, a platform through which copyright holders can notify the national regulator (AGCOM), which in turn orders ISPs to block infringing resources -- such as IP addresses and Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) -- within 30 minutes.
In this talk, we present the first investigation into the platform's real-world impact by reconstructing and analyzing its blocking activity. Our analysis shows that the platform causes significant collateral damage. Indiscriminate IP-level blocking has disrupted and continues to disrupt hundreds of legitimate, non-streaming websites. At the same time, the platform's effectiveness may have been undermined by streamers who evaded enforcement by migrating to new infrastructure and unfiltered IP address space.
Based on these findings, we call on Italian authorities and policymakers to critically reconsider the platform's core blocking principles. The evidence suggests that its broad impact on legitimate services and the potential national security risks outweigh its intended benefits.
Recording
Video will be added soon.Speaker
Raffaele Sommese
Raffaele is an assistant professor at the University of Twente. His research focuses on Internet resilience and stability. During his PhD, Raffaele focused on DNS resilience, which involved analysing and characterising DDoS attacks against DNS, investigating DNS misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, and quantifying existing as well as devising new countermeasures to mitigate attacks against DNS infrastructures. As part of his current research interests, Raffaele is investigating strategies to enhance transparency in the DNS ecosystem to prevent abuse and malicious behaviours.