February 18 – The on-going war on streaming pirates has again hit the courts, this time in Spain, with another victory for rights owners and their broadcast buyers.
LaLiga and its broadcast partner, Telefónica, have secured a court order forcing VPN providers NordVPN and Proton VPN to block access to 16 websites accused of illegally streaming LaLiga matches.
The ruling requires VPN services to immediately make the IP addresses of those sites inaccessible from within Spain.
The league said the decision recognises “the responsibility of these technological intermediaries in the process of pirating LALIGA matches.”
The court agreed that VPN providers qualify as technological intermediaries under the European Digital Services Regulation and are therefore required to “prevent infringements from being committed under their infrastructures.”
VPNs are designed to protect privacy by masking a user’s IP address and location, but they sit in a grey area. They are tools for security and data protection, especially in countries that have overzealous governments watching every internet search, however, they can also be used to bypass geo-blocking and subscription paywalls.
The orders were issued “ex parte”, meaning without all parties present, with the judge citing urgency and the need to ensure the effectiveness of the measures. They cannot be appealed.
Both VPN companies said they were unaware of any proceedings until media reports emerged.
“We were not part of any Spanish judicial proceedings to our knowledge, and therefore had no opportunity to defend ourselves. Given such judgments impact on how the Internet operates, such an approach by rightsholders is unacceptable,” said Laura Tyrylyte, privacy advocate at NordVPN.
Tyrylyte also questioned the effectiveness of domain blocking.
“Pirates can easily circumvent these blocks by using subdomains: blocking does not eliminate the content itself or reduce the incentives for piracy,” she said.
LaLiga, recently launched a reward scheme offering €50 for verified reports of businesses illegally showing matches, while pointing fans to subtle on-screen markers that help identify legitimate broadcasts.
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