Spain: Court forbids Rojadirecta football streaming
June 23, 2015
Popular Spanish streaming site Rojadirecta has been ordered by a Madrid court to stop linking to certain football streams or have its site blocked by local ISPs.
The site’s operators are refusing to budge without a fight and have already announced an appeal against the preliminary injunction. Rojadirecta is operated by the Spanish company Puerto 80, which previously won two lawsuits in Spain, declaring the site as operating legally under local law. Even the US government failed to bring the site down. In 2011 the Department of Homeland Security seized the site’s domain name, but facing a legal battle the authorities chose to hand it back to the rightful owners. Now the odds seem to have turned.
Following a complaint from the Professional Football League (LFP), a Madrid court has ruled that Rojadirecta can no longer link to unauthorised streams of football events to which Mediapro and Gol Television own the rights. The court issued a preliminary injunction that orders the site’s operators to cease these activities within seven days. If the company fails to comply, local ISPs will be instructed to block access to Rojadirecta.
Martinez Trujillo, director Strategic Projects of the Spanish Football League, welcomed the court’s decision, commenting: “The Football League has been working intensively against piracy during the last 18 months and today we won the first great battle against this [man who runs the site], who is really a crook.”