VPN piracy blocking: tech coalition warns of security risks
The Internet Infrastructure Coalition says forcing VPNs to block piracy weakens security for everyone. France already has such orders, the US is weighing them.
The Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) has published a report on VPN regulation. Its core argument: poorly targeted rules against VPNs weaken the security infrastructure that everyone relies on. The report came out on Global Encryption Day.
The trigger is the push to make VPN services block piracy sites. The coalition points to orders in France that already apply blocking to VPNs. U.S. lawmakers are also considering similar requirements.
The coalition’s members include VPN providers, so the authors have a stake of their own. Still, the argument rests on how the network works rather than on business: companies, journalists and ordinary people use VPNs and encryption, not just fans of free movies.
Rights holders see it simply: if a pirate site is blocked at the ISP, a VPN becomes a loophole. The coalition sees the reverse: turning a VPN into a filter changes the point of a service that is not supposed to look at where traffic goes.
Source: TorrentFreak