Currently, each operator shows users a different page when they try to access a domain blocked for legal reasons, such as intellectual property violation. This is because the operators receive the order to block a specific domain from the courts or from organizations responsible for intellectual property, such as those attached to the Ministry of Culture.
A few months ago, this Ministry began to work on a web page model that would serve as a notice for these cases, with the aim of standardizing the way in which this information is transmitted to the user, who should have the right to know why a certain website is inaccessible due to a block.
Now, we already know what that website will look like because the resource has been published at the web address https://blockadaseccionsegunda.cultura.gob.es/. This website, with IP 212.128.117.23, is hosted on servers of the Ministry of Culture, and the expectation is that operators will begin to use this same warning universally in Spain for websites blocked due to piracy or dissemination of copyrighted content.
Until now, as we said, each operator used a different warning. These are some examples:
- Movistar previously displayed a simple text that said: “Error 404 Not Found.” However, this did not provide the user with the necessary information, so the message was subsequently changed to “451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons.”
- Orange displays the message: “Content blocked by the competent authority”
- MásMóvil shows the brief message: “Object not found.”
- Vodafone displays the message: “For reasons beyond Vodafone’s control, this website is not available.”
On this new notice page, which is titled “Prohibited page” and which opens with the notice in capital letters “YOU ARE TRYING TO ACCESS AN ILLEGAL WEBSITE”, the Ministry tells us: “Access to this page has been blocked by Resolution of the Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission for illegally facilitating access to content protected by intellectual property rights.”
The text that follows is reminiscent of other anti-piracy campaigns that have received criticism for instilling fear in users: “By accessing content protected by intellectual property rights that has been made public without authorization, you are contributing to illegal and criminal activity, and putting your security, that of your data and devices, is at risk.
This notice may remind us of the warnings that are displayed when trying to access websites blocked by the US government, such as the one we see in the following image.
Greater transparency
This new warning represents an improvement and progress in terms of transparency, since it allows the user to know exactly the reason why the resource they are trying to access is no longer available (at least, it provides more information than a simple “404 not found»). In fact, the page mentions the Law that the owner of the domain would have violated, causing the sanction. This is Article 195 of the Consolidated text of the Intellectual Property Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996, of April 12.
Of course, this does not mean that the user has to agree with the Government’s perspective on this matter. This new notice from the Ministry reads: “If you choose to access content from legal sources, you contribute to artistic creation, the improvement of the cultural product and the development of the economy”, an argument that may have its weaknesses and raise reasonable criticism.
As of September 2024, Telefónica operators had blocked a total of 573 domains and subdomains, which can be consulted in the CIRCABC website.
