Are they going to fine you for watching football for free on IPTV? It is not entirely clear
The fight against football piracy has left worrying news for users of IPTV lists and apps to watch football for free online: a car that allows this type of person to be fined.
To be exact, the order forces operators such as Vodafone, Orange, MásMovil, Digi and Telefónica to deliver to LaLiga all the information of users who have consumed pirated football.
Data such as IP address, first and last name, postal address and ID are entered here, so that a fine can be sent to users who have pirated football. However, Are you going to be fined for watching free football on IPTV? Well, it’s not entirely clear.
The profit motive: key to fines for watching free football online
The law is very clear in this regard: consuming pirated content is not a crime. What is important is to distribute it illegally for profit because, otherwise, the right to secrecy of telecommunications and privacy prevails.
That is, the judge has requested the data from the operators. But It can only be those users who have a profit motive because, otherwise, the right to secrecy of telecommunications and privacy prevails.. Something very similar to what happens with torrents or music downloads, come on.
For something to change, a car is not enough, just as this one is not enough. In fact, it is very likely that in the event that users want to be fined as a LaLiga threat, it will be difficult for them to become effective if the defendants can confirm that there is no profit.
This clarifies it David Maeztua well-known lawyer with proven experience in copyright infringement cases, in an interesting thread on his X account.
In the information published by The countrywhich has had access to the court order, indicates that the users would have used a type of preconfigured decoder to “illicitly capture the signal for distribution”is known as Card sharing, in which a person with a legal subscription shares it with other users illegally in exchange for a fee.
They are users who have contracted football legally, but who give up their signal so that it can be disseminated with an economic motivation; it is to these people that the order of the Commercial Court number 8 of Barcelona seems to be directed.
At the moment it is too early to say whether actions will be taken against those who watch football for free on IPTV, satellite broadcasts, Acestream or similar.
Now, none of this is simple, since many people today use a VPN, so tracking pirate users, which is carried out via IP address, is more complicated than ever.
What is clear is that the order of the Commercial Court number 8 of Barcelona has set a precedent that had never been used in Spain, but It is not clear if it conflicts with the Intellectual Property Law itself. or other European laws.
