The sentence stems from a precautionary measure filed by GEDIPE - Association for the Collective Management of Copyright of Film and Audiovisual Producers against Google Portugal, for allowing the existence of the online page eztv, and of more than 500 associated subdomains, where entertainment and information content is illegally shared.

According to the court ruling, dated 9 September, Google Portugal was ordered to block its customers from connecting to the domain and subdomains of the website, and to pay a fine of one thousand euros for each day “in which the decision is not complied with, after it becomes final until the effective blocking is ordered”.

In a press release, GEDIPE states that this case dates back to August 2020, when the association informed Google Portugal that it was allowing its users to access that page and subdomains, where it is possible to download “illegally, films and series, but also newspapers and books”, without the due authorisation of the authors.

Contacted by the Lusa news agency, a Google spokesperson explained that the company will appeal the decision because it disagrees with “the legal grounds of the case”. The issue at stake is the use of the so-called "domain name system", or DNS, which registers and links website names and internet protocols (IP) and which allows each person to use the Internet.

GEDIPE informed Google Portugal in August 2020 of the illegality of that website, and the Inspectorate-General for Cultural Activities notified the operators that provide Internet service to block such access, but each user can bypass this block through secondary DNS, accessible through Google's browser.

The court maintains that it was proven that Google Portugal “acts as an intermediary when it provides an alternative DNS that gives access to the domain https://eztv.yt, which allows the blocking already decreed to be bypassed” and access to other websites associated with that domain.

The company claims that Google Portugal does not have the capacity to block domains, because the company's public DNS is provided by Google Ireland and, apart from that fact, blocking a DNS does not remove illegal content, it only makes it more difficult to access.

For the Lisbon Intellectual Property Court, the company “did not prove that Google Ireland is the only one that provides this [blocking] service at a European level” and that it “provides an alternative DNS that allows continued access to blocked domains and subdomains”, the ruling reads.