Unique Site-Blocking Order Explained By Federal Court

On January 22, 2025, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) in Bell Media Inc. v John Doe 1 (Soap2day), 2025 FC 133, provided its reasons for a Site-Blocking Order (the Order) issued last year, which required selected internet service providers (Third Party Respondents) to prevent access to websites and internet services associated with the operation of certain piracy platforms.

The plaintiffs, including Bell Media Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., produce, own and/or distribute motion pictures and television programs. On June 12, 2023, the plaintiffs filed and served a motion for an interlocutory injunction requiring the deactivation of an online piracy platform operating under the name “Soap2day”. The Soap2day platform was deactivated the next day, but similar piracy platforms operating under the “Soap2day” banner quickly gained popularity (e.g., soap2day.rs and soap2dayx.to). The plaintiffs later amended their claim to include these new platforms and, around the time it served its amended pleadings on the operators of the new sites, discovered that some of the platforms were deactivated with new Soap2day domains subsequently replacing them.

On December 16, 2024, the Court granted Default Judgement against the defendants and issued the Order. However, the Court opted to issue the Order and provide its reasons at a later date because it was not able to provide its reasons at the time in both official languages (as required under the recently amended Official Languages Act).

In its later issued reasons, the Court explained that the Order contained an important difference from similar relief granted in past proceedings. Unlike other circumstances where it was easy to identify subsequent domains associated with the original impugned platform (such as in Bell Media Inc v GoldTV.Biz, 2019 FC 1432, as previously reported in the E-TIPS® Newsletter here), the Soap2day platforms primarily derive revenue from advertisements and it is difficult to determine whether new domains under the Soap2day banner are operated by the same or related persons. Consequently, the Order granted encompasses: (i) existing Soap2Day platforms; as well as (ii) any copycat sites that may appear following the deactivation of existing platforms. Accordingly, the plaintiffs may notify Third Party Respondents of any additional sites that “make infringing content available to the public, are unresponsive to notices of infringement, and operate in substantially the same way as the existing sites”, and absent objection from the Third Party Respondents, the plaintiffs can expand the scope of the Order to cover the additional sites with a simplified motion to the Court.

Summary By: Imtiaz Karamat