We have been ordered to block certain sites related to the Soap2Day service
In November 2024, Bell Media Inc. and a list of media production companies including Columbia Pictures, Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. sued a streaming service called Soap2day in the Federal Court of Canada. As part of that action, they asked the court to issue an order forcing a list of Canadian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to certain sites associated with the Soap2day service. On December 16, 2024, the Federal Court issued a 2-year blocking order (File Number T-1125-23, Bell Media Inc. et al v. John Doe dba Soap2day). Since the Plaintiffs can update the list of sites that are blocked, but the original court order won't get updated as the list of blocked sites changes, we're posting the latest list of blocked sites here.
The plaintiffs specifically named TekSavvy as one of the ISPs on the order, so we are required to block the listed sites.
This order is similar to an earlier order against the GoldTV sites, that was issued in 2019 and expired in December 2024. In that case, TekSavvy opposed that order and appealed it, first to the Federal Court of Appeal and finally to the Supreme Court of Canada. We appealed that order because, among other things, we see blocking orders as a grave violation of network neutrality and a fundamental change to what we do as an ISP. The principles of common carriage and network neutrality mean ISPs carry traffic to and from end users in as neutral a fashion as possible. All ISPs should defend the basic principle that we are not liable for or responsible for the content of the traffic on our networks. Unfortunately, our appeals were not successful and, as a result, there has been a proliferation of site blocking orders.
Technical Information
Finally, to ensure we are operating in as transparent a manner as possible, here is some technical information about how we are doing this blocking. Under the Soap2day order, ISPs can use DNS blocking or DNS rerouting to prevent end users from accessing the blocked sites. TekSavvy is using DNS rerouting by changing TekSavvy's DNS server to point these domains directly to an informational page provided by the Plaintiffs, instead of where other neutral and unaffected DNS servers point.
