A July 2025 report sponsored by Cloudflare and produced by Analysys Mason contends that “controlling access to content by intervening on technical infrastructure through network blocking may introduce friction, leading to inconsistent user experiences and negative economic consequences.
Network blocking can cause immediate economic cost, by interrupting the activity of legitimate Internet-based services that are unrelated to the illegitimate content being targeted,” it said.
The report focuses on the impact of network blocking, including the use of Internet Protocol (IP) address blocking, Domain Name System (DNS)-based blocking, Server Name Indication and DPI (deep packet inspection) blocking, and VPN blocking on the overall fabric of the internet.
The Analysys report repeats well-worn complaints that are commonly expressed by commercial Internet transport providers. The report contends that:
- Network blocking disrupts the technical infrastructure of the Internet, without removing infringing content
- Network blocking risks undermining the technical fabric of the global Internet, causing a range of economic harms
- Network blocking imposes economic costs by disrupting Internet services that are unrelated to illegitimate content
- Network blocking creates economic cost by imposing additional compliance costs on service providers
- The rationale for network blocking does not appear to justify its impact on the integrity of the global Internet’s technical foundations nor the spillover effects on users
The report recommended that policy makers ensure they properly consider and assess the trade-off between the harms they are seeking to prevent through network blocking (e.g. access to copyright-infringing content) and the potential costs of coarsely implemented blocking.
These costs can be directly related to a given blocking order, but can also be more diffuse and long term, because a patchwork of network blocking practices and rationales undermines the integrity of the technical fabric of the global Internet.
Further reading
The economic cost of network blocking. Report for Cloudflare. Ref: 676870599-295. by David Abecassis, Andrew Daly, Dalya Glickman. July 28, 2025. Analysys Mason
The economic cost of network blocking. Press release. July 28, 2025. Analysys Mason
Why it matters
The report has value by providing a useful review of the various methods of access blocking.
But to be clear, Piracy Monitor stands at the side of rights-holders. In our view, transport providers should be transparent to their wishes. The losses attributable to piracy are not financial alone. They extend to theft of ownership, cybercrime, damage to consumers, and damage to reputation.
Cloudflare and Analysys say that exhausting first all avenues to remove infringing content at its source can mitigate the costs of blocking, “and that, in many cases, a balance can be struck by implementing content restriction … before blocking is even considered.” That claim sounds logical on its face, but pirates work hard at obfuscating their sources and methods, and it’s often impossible to even determine the source.
Another example of the impact of site blocking was a March 2024 complaint by an association of ISPs in Italy, in reaction to the Italian government’s Piracy Shield infringement ticketing platform. However, those complaints were somewhat justified because Piracy Shield was producing errors at that time.
