In a historic ruling, football may find itself facing an important paradigm shift: the football employers’ association may, from now on, request the data of users who are watching football pirated from telecommunications operators.
The Commercial Court number 8 of Barcelona has published a ruling that could forever change football as we know it, as the newspaper advances. The Objective. Justice will allow the football employers to request the telecommunications operators the data of all users to download or watch matches illegally, through any of the platforms or channels that currently exist on the market.
The ruling represents another step in the efforts that LaLiga had made until now to fight piracy. It is the first time that Justice not only pursues the platforms that illegally distribute content, but also focuses, from now on, on those users who consume football illegally.
Pirate servers
According to the previously mentioned order, the operators will have the obligation to inform LaLiga of all those who access content through pirate servers. The data you must provide are the IP assigned to each user, the name and surname of the contracted owner, the internet access service, the postal address of the facility, the DNI and the billing data. That is, everything that allows the user in question to be identified and, in addition, to determine exactly where they are located geographically.
At the moment in which the operators begin to provide this data, LaLiga could begin to send the pertinent complaints to private addresses. Therefore, we could be just a few days away from starting to receive these letters.
In addition, the court has also requested the operators of Telefónica, Orange, Vodafone, MásMóvil and Digi that they provide the necessary documentation to be able to identify the pirate user and that, in addition, the file with a table identifying the servers and evidence of audiovisual content that is accessed illegally is included. That is, all the possible evidence that allows the fault to be reported without doubts about it.
A judicial procedure
In the event that this is not sufficient, a judicial procedurel formal sanctions, with the aim of dissuading all those who are consuming football illegally from continuing to do so from now on.
According to LaLiga, the cost of piracy In our country it translates into a loss of 200 million auros annually for football clubs. The problem is of sufficient magnitude that the employers’ association currently has a team of 30 people whose main mission is to fight against any pirate act that allows football games to continue to be distributed illicitly.
