Quad9 resists French pirate-site blocking order, faces huge daily fines from beIN
in plain words
Quad9 runs a free service that helps computers find websites, called DNS Domain Name System The internet's directory that links domain names to computer addresses. Full definition of DNS. French courts ordered it to block pirate sports streaming sites for people in France, but Quad9 says it cannot tell which users are French without collecting personal data. Sports broadcaster beIN wants huge daily fines until Quad9 complies. A French court will decide in about three weeks whether to approve those fines.
Quad9, a Swiss non-profit resolver The DNS server that looks up domain names on behalf of users. Full definition of resolver, told TorrentFreak it has never blocked any of the 58 pirate-streaming domains a Paris court ordered it to restrict for French users in May. The order, requested by broadcaster beIN Sports over illegal WTA tennis streams, initially listed six domains before growing to 58 through later updates. It also applied to Google and DNS4EU operator Whalebone.
When beIN first sought the order, it asked the Paris court to impose a €2,000-per-domain daily penalty specifically against Quad9, a request the court denied at the time, saying nothing showed Quad9 intended to resist compliance. beIN has since returned to court seeking €10,000 per domain per day, which would total €580,000 daily across the 58 domains. The case was heard last Thursday, with a ruling expected in roughly three weeks.
Quad9 argues it cannot comply with a France-only block because it does not collect user data and would have to rely on third-party IP Internet Protocol The internet's basic rules for sending data, using numeric addresses for every connected device. Full definition of IP geolocation databases it considers inaccurate. “There is no legally useful way for us to define a French user,” the foundation says. It points to a prior German case brought by Sony Music, where courts reportedly found its attempt to limit blocking to German users insufficient, though Quad9 ultimately won on appeal.
Quad9 could instead block the domains worldwide, as it did temporarily in Germany in 2023 under threat of penalties, but it says that case was different and each situation is assessed separately. The foundation maintains that “DNS recursive resolvers are the wrong place to counter the problem of online piracy” and would produce worse outcomes for French internet users.
An ISOC Internet Society A global nonprofit that supports the open internet and is the parent of the .org registry. Full definition of ISOC report cited by Quad9 warned earlier this year that smaller DNS provider A company that runs the name servers for a domain, which may differ from the registrar. Full definition of DNS provider bear the heaviest burden from blocking orders, risking exclusion from the market if they cannot afford compliance costs that larger providers can absorb. If the Paris court grants beIN’s penalty request, Quad9 says it faces three limited options: an inaccurate France-only block, a global block, or potentially withdrawing service from France altogether, as OpenDNS did after the first French blocking order in 2024.