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When U.S. lawmakers draft legislation like the Fighting Abusive Domain Seizures (FADPA) and Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Act (ACPA), they emphasize judicial oversight and transparency as safeguards against overreach. But a recent copyright enforcement campaign in India—where courts ordered the blocking of 536 domains following an initial "transparent" ruling for just six—exposes a critical flaw: transparency often ends where the real censorship begins.

The Delhi Precedent: A Case Study in Scale

Sports broadcaster DAZN's actions in India illustrate the gap between legislative promises and enforcement reality. The High Court of Delhi granted an injunction requiring local ISPs to block six domains (buffsports.me, sporthd.me, and others) for streaming FIFA Club World Cup content illegally. This initial order, similar to what FADPA/ACPA would make public, appeared measured.


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Yet within weeks, DAZN submitted **19 additional domain lists** targeting proxies, mirrors, and entirely new platforms—eventually blocking 536 domains. Crucially: - **Registrars like Namecheap suspended domains globally** based on Indian rulings - Orders authorized blocking domains *that didn’t yet exist* and real-time app blocking - Courts granted these powers *during judicial recess*, eliminating oversight "This is standard operating procedure where site-blocking exists," says a cybersecurity legal expert. "You secure a minimal initial order for legitimacy, then unleash the full force once the transparency spotlight dims." ### Why US ‘Transparency’ Falls Short FADPA and ACPA propose publishing only the **initial blocking order**—equivalent to revealing just DAZN’s first six domains while hiding the subsequent 530. This creates dangerous blind spots: 
| Jurisdiction | Initial Domains Disclosed | Total Domains Blocked | Transparency Gap |
|--------------|---------------------------|------------------------|------------------|
| India        | 6                         | 536                    | 98.9%            |
| US Proposals | ~6-10                     | Potentially 100s+      | >90% estimated   |
Without visibility into follow-up actions: 1. **Collateral damage goes undetected**: Legitimate sites caught in dragnets lack recourse 2. **Due process evaporates**: No public scrutiny of evidence for "additional" blocks 3. **Global impact is obscured**: US-based registrars/ISPs face foreign takedown demands > "Transparency that only shows the tip of the iceberg isn’t transparency—it’s theater. Developers building DNS tools or content platforms need to see the full infrastructure of censorship," argues EFF Legal Director Corynne McSherry. 
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*DAZN's rapidly expanding domain block lists in India (Source: TorrentFreak)*

The Infrastructure Risk

For engineers, this isn’t just a legal debate—it’s an infrastructure challenge. Dynamic blocking demands:

  • Real-time DNS filtering at ISP level
  • Automated compliance systems for registrars
  • Content recognition tech for app blocking

Yet opaque processes prevent auditing these systems for accuracy or abuse. As Cloudflare’s 2023 report noted, thousands of erroneous blocks already occur under existing regimes—errors that remain hidden without mandated disclosure.

Beyond Piracy: The Censorship Slope

Murphy’s Law—"anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"—haunts site-blocking. Spain’s opaque system saw legal journalism sites blocked. The UK now uses similar infrastructure for non-copyright content removal. When frameworks prioritize speed over accountability, mission creep follows.

The question isn’t whether the U.S. will adopt site-blocking (momentum suggests inevitability), but whether developers and infrastructure providers will inherit a system where transparency is a facade—and where the most impactful censorship happens in the dark.

Source: TorrentFreak