Universal Music's German division might finally get answers from the EU's highest court about whether Cloudflare can be blamed when pirates use its infrastructure. A German federal court kicked the question upstairs after years of legal fighting over a dead piracy site called DDL-Music that used to link people to bootleg Sarah Connor tracks.
The case could reshape how internet backbone companies like Cloudflare and Akamai handle liability. Universal says Cloudflare's CDN service counts as hosting since it caches stuff for a year, which would make them responsible for infringement. Cloudflare claims the Digital Services Act protects CDN services as caching operations that get special treatment.
The EU court also needs to decide if linking to pirated files counts as piracy itself. A ruling against link sites would let rightsholders sue them directly instead of chasing sketchy cyberlockers hiding behind Russian servers. The whole thing probably takes another year or more before anyone gets a ruling.
The case could reshape how internet backbone companies like Cloudflare and Akamai handle liability. Universal says Cloudflare's CDN service counts as hosting since it caches stuff for a year, which would make them responsible for infringement. Cloudflare claims the Digital Services Act protects CDN services as caching operations that get special treatment.
The EU court also needs to decide if linking to pirated files counts as piracy itself. A ruling against link sites would let rightsholders sue them directly instead of chasing sketchy cyberlockers hiding behind Russian servers. The whole thing probably takes another year or more before anyone gets a ruling.
