Concern in Uruguay for a decree that allows the blocking of internet pages

The Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry (LACNIC) expressed concern about a decree passed in Uruguay that allows access to websites to be blocked. Although it aims to regulate the piracythey warn that it could affect freedom of expression.

“Recently the state published a decree in which the authorities can block sites that violate intellectual property rights, in essence: television signals that have their rights and that are transmitted illegally,” he explained to clarion Oscar Robles Garay, executive director of LACNIC.

In a roundtable with journalists in Montevideo, the head of the body that “defends the rights of the Internet,” explained that the current situation that seeks to block access to piracy sites such as Direct Red, Free Soccer or Pirate Baycould have a direct impact on which websites citizens can access or not.

“It’s okay to protect the intellectual property of others, but sometimes when you do without technical expertise enough, other rights can be affected: pages, government sites, schools and more, which is clearly not the focus of these measures ”, he developed.

Due to the regulation affecting the Uruguayan Communication Services Regulatory Unit (URSEC), issued on October 25, LACNIC was given access to make comments to correct some problems.

As they argue, these issues are critical because they could interfere with the free flow of information, a human right recognized by Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights of the DARE.

The problem of the decree

“Technically, if you’re only being asked to download one domain, that’s not an effective block. Y if they request it via the IP, of the numerical address where that domain was, sometimes in that IP there are more pages or more domains involved. So there needs to be a technical expertise to look at what other sites are on that IP, if it’s the whole domain or if they need to request the whole URL,” the expert graphically represented.

“Unfortunately this is one of the arguments that have not been accepted, because sometimes it is not the domain owner’s fault, but the site has been hacked and a series of artifacts have been placed there to make phishing or to do the illegal transmission on television,” he continued.

That’s where LACNIC intervened to warn the Uruguayan state that the decree could cause problems in the future: “We wanted to warn about these situations, limit a little the risks of these unexpected consequences, and fortunately most of our comments were account taken into consideration. This will limit the risks a bit, although it doesn’t mean that they have to keep paying attention to every request they receive, because suddenly they could be an IP and that IP has sites from the state, civil society or even businesses, which may not work“, commented.

Based on these issues, he explained: “What we give are elements, comments, what things to pay attention to so that these chances are reduced and lo and behold you have a little more certainty and the effectiveness of this measure. Regulation is a key element for companies, but these processes are becoming increasingly complex and need to take into account all parties involved,” she concluded.

witness cases

Robles cited as an example a recent Uruguayan government decree ordering the elimination of the transmission of television signals released on the Internet or networks to protect intellectual property.

Another case was that of Uber in Argentina, when the Justice ordered the blocking of the technological platform only in the City of Buenos Aires, for which a judge in the United States had to be asked to order the local servers to block Uber in that territory. , as the domain was located there.

In Brazil, the Justice ordered the blocking of WhatsApp for 72 hours throughout the country in a drug trafficking case, which led to the disconnection of the messaging service throughout the territory of Costa Rica.

Robles also pointed out that efforts to block the Roja Directa site for intellectual property infringement were in vain as once the domain was established in England it was found to have an infinite number of similar sites (mirrors) around the world, which became “an endless chase.”

“A judge does not have sufficient expertise to specify how a site is blocked and the consequences on the network they can be very serious“, he insisted, during the speech to the round table.

What is LACNIC?

The Registry of Internet Addresses of Latin America and the Caribbean is an international non-governmental organization, founded in Uruguay in 2002. “Its function is allocate and manage resources Internet numbering (IPv4, IPv6), standalone numbers and reverse resolution by region,” they explain from their site.

“We are a non-profit entity with the purpose of managing IP addresses on the Internet for all of Latin America and the Caribbean. We are not an Internet company, we are not big companies, we are not a Facebook, a Google. We are an entity of the technical community, created by all Internet stakeholders 20 years ago to allocate them resources to those in need”, explained Robles in dialogue with Clarín.

“Although we have nearly 12,000 associates who can be Antel, Claro, Telmex or Telecom Argentina, Personal or anyone else, we do not defend their interests. What we defend are the interests of the Internet, how to prevent it natural functioning“, hill.

LACNIC has a seven-member board of experts and technicians from different areas and reviews the service run by these 12,000 associates, who provide services in 33 territories of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Its headquarters are in the Carrasco district of Montevideo, Uruguay.