Cloudflare has welcomed the recent ruling in the German courts in its legal battle with Universal Music. Well, it has welcomed half of the ruling. The half that said it doesn't have to implement web-blocks against copyright-infringing websites via its DNS resolver 1.1.1.1.
"A recent decision from the Higher Regional Court of Cologne in Germany marked important progress for Cloudflare and the internet in pushing back against misguided attempts to address online copyright infringement through the DNS system", it said in a blog post yesterday.
However, it then added, "there were other parts of the opinion that raise concerns". That relates to Cloudflare's obligations to take action to block copyright infringing websites via its CDN - or content delivery network.
For the music industry, web-blocking has become a piracy tactic of choice. Music companies usually get court orders that force internet service providers to block their customers from accessing piracy sites.
In more recent years, the music industry's lawyers have been seeking to extend those obligations to other internet services, including third party DNS resolvers like 1.1.1.1. Mainly because, when an ISP blocks access to a piracy site, its users can often circumvent the blockade if they switch to a third party DNS resolver.
The Italian music industry has successfully sought a web-blocking order against Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1. And, in Germany, Sony Music has had some success pursuing legal action against another third party resolver, Quad9.
However, with the German case involving Universal and Cloudflare, judges decided that - while the internet firm does have a web-blocking obligation in relation to its CDN - that does not extend to the DNS resolver, because that specific service "contributes to the connection of internet domains in a purely passive, automatic and neutral manner".
Cloudflare hopes that that ruling will strengthen its arguments regarding web-blocks on 1.1.1.1, both in Germany and also elsewhere in Europe. Meanwhile, it plans to appeal the ruling regarding its CDN.