Cosplay Models To Sue Cloudflare For Aiding Piracy

The content delivery network Cloudflare is always under attack from the content industry. Because the service is repeatedly accused of protecting the “wrong people”. Now you have to deal with unusual opponents: Cosplay models.

Cloudflare is not only a content delivery network (CDN), but also a provider of various security solutions and DNS services. The company, which is based in San Francisco, is known for its DDoS protection. Cloudflare is used by around six million websites, most of which are legitimate.

But not exclusively: Because the content industry and politics repeatedly accuse Cloudflare of not doing enough against copyright infringement. However, copyright infringements do not occur directly, but rather due to the fact that you don’t look well enough at who you choose as a customer – at least that is the accusation.

Originally against Thothub

Cosplay models were added to the list of critics and plaintiffs back in the summer. First, the Texan model Deniece Waidhofer sued a site called Thothub, which is said to have posted numerous “exclusive” photos that are only available for a fee. Thothub gave up, but the lawsuit is not over.

Because it has been extended to providers who have done business with Thothub, including Cloudflare in the lead. As TorrentFreak reports, this is not the only change, because now Waidhofer is not the sole plaintiff, Ryuu Lavitz and Margaret McGhee alias OMGcosplay have joined her.

In the new or amended lawsuit, the original allegations were toned down, most notably that Cloudflare violated the law known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). RICO was issued against extortion by the Mafia and later extended to drug trafficking.

The allegation against Cloudflare is that the CDN has found its niche and specialized in aiding and abetting copyright violations. Cloudflare denies this categorically and refers to the fact that you are only a “middleman” and have no knowledge of what data is flowing through the network. Contents would not be stored permanently, but only created in cache copies.

The plaintiffs claim, however, that Cloudflare was aware of the copyright infringements at Thothub and deliberately did not take any action. “Cloudflare could easily have curtailed Thothub’s infringements by simply stopping the service or not serving URLs that it already knew contained infringing content. But Cloudflare instead stood behind Thothub, as they do regularly for pirates everywhere Indeed, Cloudflare made a ‘home business’ out of forbearance with pirates. “