If a few months ago the news spread that LaLiga would have the opportunity to prosecute those users who watched pirated football, now they are already receiving a conciliation letter from the competition to avoid going to trial. Although, to do so, those involved have to pay up to 450.16 euros as compensation for damages.
At the time, it was undoubtedly classified as a historic measure to end piracy in Spanish football. However, at that moment, and as the hours passed, it became clear that the idea was to pursue the cardsharers who spread the LaLiga signal to third parties. So end users did not enter into this equation. Something that, finally, does not seem to be the case, since the competition has already sent a series of demand letters, in this case conciliation, to private users.
End-user IPs come into play
Although different experts in Intellectual Property or even the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) clarified that end users were not going to be persecuted, it seems that this was not the case in the end. From the first moment it looked bad for anyone who watches pirated football, although it was concluded that the IPs that came into play in the car were those of those who are profiting financially by broadcasting LaLiga matches. Now, the problem is that, as David Maeztu explains well in his X account, the competition has already sent a series of demands to individual users that they have managed to identify thanks to the IP.
Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, made it clear: «The commercial court of Barcelona has decreed in an order that telecom companies are obliged to give LaLiga the clients who contact a series of IP addresses that LaLiga, with its anti-piracy team, , will supply«. And in the end that’s how it was.
This resolution obliges the different operators in Spain, such as Movistar, Vodafone, Orange, MasMovil, Digi… to deliver the data of the fixed broadband line owner, as well as the address from which the Internet service is contracted. . And although everything seemed to indicate that the car was not for those who watch a football match without rights, with this letter things change.
LaLiga’s letters to users
After a few months, it seems that the situation was more critical than previously thought. In this case, David Maeztu, a lawyer specialized in Internet Law and Intellectual Property, has announced through his Twitter account the demand that some users are receiving based on the Barcelona order:
The letters sent to end users who have already been identified arrive as a prior conciliation, before going to trial. However, the competition asks for up to 450.16 euros “as compensation for damages caused by their conduct.” The great dilemma of this situation is not only that individuals who do not profit from pirated football receive “a fine”, but that they are permanently monitoring the communications of these users from the operators in order to comply with what is established by LaLiga. .
In these letters, it is reported that they have been able to verify, thanks to the information provided by the Internet operator, that football broadcasts are being accessed illegitimately. In addition, the IP address of the user and also that of the server from which the competition match could be followed is indicated. Therefore, this shows that LaLiga is using the order that was published in March to go against end users, at least that is what it shows with the sending of these notifications by mail. And if you want to avoid going to trial, you have no choice but to assume the payment requested.
