CloudFlare revokes access to piracy complaints on IPFS

A transparency report reveals that CloudFlare disables access to the 'IPFS Gateway' provided by CloudFlare since 2018 when there is a report of unauthorized use such as copyright infringement. increase.

Cloudflare Transparency Report | Cloudflare

Cloudflare Disables Access to 'Pirated' Content on its IPFS Gateway * TorrentFreak

'IPFS' is an abbreviation of 'Interplanetary file system', and unlike the conventional Internet that distributes content from the origin server all over the world, it stores and distributes content in a P2P file system that connects thousands of computers. How it works.

Whereas in the traditional, centralized Internet structure, specific servers host content, in a P2P network anyone's PC can be one of the nodes in the system.

Cloudflare has provided this IPFS gateway since 2018.

Cloudflare goes InterPlanetary - Introducing Cloudflare's IPFS Gateway

According to the transparency report, in the first half of 2022 alone, Cloudflare has blocked 1,073 IPFS accesses in response to reports of copyright infringement, technology, and other misuse. This measure does not prevent the same content from being made available through other gateways.

TorrentFreak, a news site familiar with file sharing and piracy, points out that this measure is 'unusual for Cloudflare to block in response to copyright complaints.'

For example, if a CDN service receives a similar copyright complaint, Cloudflare will simply forward the notice to the content distributor and take no other action.

TorrentFreak contacted Cloudflare about this, but did not receive a response.

TorrentFreak does not know who manages IPFS content, so I guess that when there is a complaint, there is no destination to transfer it to, and it is unavoidably blocked.