Rojadirecta, doomed to total closure and to indemnify Movistar

Image: mercury-drinks

Bad news for Rojadirecta. The Commercial Court no. 1 of la Coruña has sentenced to the closing and the termination of its activity immediately, making effective the judgment rendered few days ago. The judgment obliged to shut down the web in all of its domains (in addition to Rojadirecta stayed in others as RojadirectaTV or Tarjetarojaonline) and to stop providing your service, as usual, provide links to sporting events without possessing the rights, of the relevant emission.

This sentence has its origin in the demand of DTS, a group that controlled Canal+ and since its purchase by Telefonica is Movistar+. In this lawsuit accusing Puerto 80 Projects, the company that controls Rojadirecta, of violating the economic rights of intellectual property, by disseminating the broadcasts of these sporting events, mainly football matches, without the required permission on the part of DTS, who had invested in them.

Rojadirecta has been argued during the trial that his role was that of intermediary, and that they were the users themselves who added the links needed to view the broadcasts. This argument has been dismissed by the judge on the extent to which the architecture of the web facilitated the structuring and organization of the content that gave access to those links, thereby considering to Port 80 Projects “of the cooperator necessary to and guilty of the violation of intellectual property rights”.

Apart from the complete closure of the web, the ruling also sets compensation to the plaintiff, Movistar+, whose amount has not yet been specified. This sentence is joined to the victory of Mediapro against Rojadirecta after the judgment of the same court last November.