In recent weeks, LaLiga has intensified its fight against piracypointing to Cloudflare and Google as actors that facilitate access to illegal sport content emissions. Specifically, LaLiga has accused Cloudflare of providing services that hide the identity of pirate platforms, hindering its tracking and closing.
This conflict took greater relevance with the closure of Duckviewa platform that broadcast sporting events without a license and that, according to LaLiga, used Cloudflare to mask your infrastructure. However, the measures taken to block IP addresses related to this activity have generated Collateral problemsaffecting legitimate users who have seen their access to various web pages restricted.
But what is Cloudflare? How does it work? What is your role in the Internet structure? We explain it to you in this article.
What is cloudflare and how it works
Cloudflare It is one Cloud Services Platform that improves the securityhe performance and the reliability of the websites. It acts as an intermediary between users and origin servers, protecting the pages of cyber attacks and accelerating the content load through its Content delivery network (CDN).
Main characteristics of cloudflare
Protection against DDOS ATTACKS: Cloudflare detects and mitigates distributed service denial attacks, preventing websites from being saturated by malicious traffic.
Firewall and Security: Filters suspicious traffic and protects unauthorized access servers.
CDN (content delivery network): It distributes copies of the web pages on global servers to reduce latency and improve load speed.
Traffic optimization: Use techniques such as file compression and cache storage to improve user experience.
He operation process of the tool is as follows:
Traffic passes through cloudflare: When a user tries to access a website that Use Cloudflare, his application does not go directly to the origin server, but first passes through the global cloudflare network.
Traffic protection and filtering: Cloudflare analyzes the application and filters the potentially dangerous traffic, blocking attacks of ddos, malicious bots and suspicious accesses.
CDN performance optimization: Cloudflare stores copies of the content of the site on servers distributed throughout the world through its content delivery network. Thus, when a user access the site, the information is loaded from the nearest server, reducing load times.
Delivery of content to the user: After filtering threats and optimizing speed, Cloudflare delivers the website to the user safely and quickly.
For example, a Ecommerce With customers in different countries you can implement Cloudflare to ensure that your site will quickly load anywhere in the world. Thanks to your CDNthe site files are stored on servers distributed globally, reducing waiting times and improving the purchase experience. In addition, security tools can avoid malicious attacks that compromise the platform. And if the main server fails, the site continues to work thanks to the copy in cache stored in the Cloudflare network.
The controversy: Cloudflare, LaLiga and Piracy
The conflict between LaLiga and Cloudflare It has as its central axis the protection of copyright in sports broadcasts. According to LaLiga, services such as Cloudflare allow illegal platforms hide your identityhindering its closure and facilitating the unauthorized broadcast of football matches.
The DuckVision case and the IPS blockade
One of the most controversial episodes was the deactivation of Duckviewa platform that transmitted LaLiga content without authorization. LaLiga argued that Duckvision used Cloudflare to Avoid being detected and avoid blocking measures. In response, together with Movistar+they implemented a Mass blocking IP addresses associated with cloudflarewhich generated unexpected consequences.
Impact on legitimate users
The blockade of IP addresses related to Cloudflare not only affected pirate pages, but also legitimate websites that use their services to improve their safety and speed. This caused a «Digital Bru what» that left many users without access to various platforms on the Internet, awakening criticism about the effectiveness and proportionality of the measures adopted.
Cloudflare response
Before these accusations, Cloudflare has defended its positionaffirming that piracy does not support and cooperate with the authorities when necessary. The company argues that its services are used by millions of legitimate websites and that It is not responsible for the content that they house. And, with respect to the consequences of the blockade carried out by LaLiga and Movistar+, he added that «although LaLig Law, LaLiga continued with said blockade. This seems to reflect an erroneous belief that their commercial interests must prevail over the rights of millions of consumers to access the open internet ».
