LaLiga Warns Cloudflare User Over Piracy-Linked IP Address

Online piracy, in any shape or form, is illegal. Governments, companies, and individuals responsible for creating content should be compensated and not suffer losses due to piracy. This is why organizations proactively use additional tactics to prevent any form of piracy since it ultimately affects their earnings.

One of the most prevalent forms of piracy today is live streaming, and live sports events are a popular target for piracy. According to Agile TV, “LaLiga clubs lose €600–700 million annually due to piracy…” which is a staggering amount of lost revenues that could be used for other purposes as the league sees fit.

This is why sports leagues have been proactive in shutting down any form of live streaming piracy. Unfortunately, they could overstep in their overzealousness, as it might affect innocent online users.

Hunting IP Addresses Associated with Streaming

Elblogdelazaro.org is a Spanish-language blog that focuses on networking, Linux-based technologies, and other information the blogger could find useful in the future. If you visit the website, it has nothing to do with streaming or sports. It is basically a blog written by someone dedicated to a specific topic, with additional posts that the blogger may find interesting.

But the blogger recently posted about a letter from LaLiga with a warning about streaming illegal content. They have detected that the IP address 104.21.16.1 is associated with the blog and is also used for streaming illegal content.

The blogger could be in trouble if it is actively participating in streaming illegal content. The problem: the website uses Cloudflare Proxy for protection against attacks, and the blogger explained that Cloudflare Proxy uses shared IP addresses (statement translated using Google Translate):

“Anyone even remotely familiar with web infrastructure knows that Cloudflare Proxy operates with shared IP addresses: hundreds or thousands of websites are hosted behind the same public IP address, and there is no way for a small site administrator to decide which other projects share that network.”

The blogger is unaware that the shared IP address given by Cloudflare is also used for illegal streaming and does not have control over the specific IP address.

Now comes the scary part: TorrentFreak translated the letter sent by LaLiga. The letter came with a warning to the blogger about legal actions if no action is taken on this matter. Ignoring their request could also lead to a legal case filed against the blog.

Taking Action Against Users Instead of CloudFlare

The blogger acknowledges the concerning status of the website because of its association with illegal streaming. However, it should be argued that going against innocent users instead of illegal streamers themselves is never the solution. Online users should protect themselves from potential attacks, and Cloudflare Proxy actually helps, especially for relatively smaller websites.

On the other hand, the blogger acknowledges that pressuring users could be one of the last resorts to pressure CloudFlare to be more active about illegal streaming. His website could be taken down without warning, or the website could opt out of CloudFlare Proxy altogether to avoid further problems from LaLiga.