Danish Court Greenlights Copyright Protection for Live Sports in Landmark Blocking Case

The final verdict in a Danish site blocking battle, involving LaLiga and Rojadirecta, confirms that live sports broadcasts are protected copyright works. This marks a significant victory for rightsholders, who believe that this landmark decision paves the way for increased blocking of pirate streaming services across Europe.

As one of the oldest sports live-streaming portals, Rojadirecta has been thorn in the side of sports organizations for well over a decade.

The linking site, operated by a Spanish company Puerto 80 Projects and its owner Igor Seoane, initially had a good track record when it came to legal battles.

Rojadirecta famously had its domain name returned after it was seized by the US Government years ago. In addition, the site successfully fought off copyright holders in court.

Rojadirecta tried to achieve an equally positive result when it challenged a Danish site blocking order. But that didn’t go as planned.

Rojadirecta Challenges Danish Site Blocking

In 2009, anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, in conjunction with LaLiga, obtained a site-blocking injunction against Rojadirecta in Denmark. While the site wasn’t sued directly, it did intervene in the case, which initially failed. The court ordered ISP Telenor to block access to the sports streaming site.

Rojadirecta didn’t give up easily and appealed the interim decision. The streaming site pointed out that it offered links to legally available streams. In addition, it stressed that users were required to tick a box, indicating that submitted streams were not infringing any copyrights.

The Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s preliminary ruling in 2020. According to the ruling, it is likely that Rojadirecta violates the rights of the Spanish football league. Citing jurisprudence from the European Court of Justice, including the Filmspeler case, site blocking is therefore warranted.

Are Live-Streams Copyrighted?

With the blocking measures firmly in place, the case was eventually heard on its merits. This wasn’t a straightforward matter, as copyright protection for live sports broadcasts is an area of copyright law that has not been extensively tested in court.

In 2022, the Frederiksberg court confirmed that LaLiga indeed holds copyright over the production and recording of the live football matches. In addition, the court confirmed that Rojadirecta infringed these copyrights.

By recognizing live sports broadcasts as copyrighted works in the first case of this kind in Europe, the court established that site blocking can be used as a legal tool to combat live sports piracy.

Rojadirecta also appealed this decision, but the company eventually failed to show up in court. Without a defense, the Eastern High Court therefore dismissed the appeal earlier this month, making the decision final.

Landmark Case

To outsiders, copyright eligibility for live sports may seem like a technicality. However, for rightsholders this was a vital decision, which effectively determined the effectiveness of their anti-piracy arsenal going forward. Understandably, they are pleased with the outcome.

Commenting on the outcome, Rights Alliance director Maria Fredenslund stresses that this is a great result. Not just for LaLiga, but also for other rightsholders of live sports streaming events.

“With a final verdict in the case, we have the court’s word that rights to show football are subject to copyright and can therefore be protected,” Fredenslund says.

“We therefore look forward to using the decision as a starting point to achieve better protection of live content in Denmark and also hope that the case can pave the way for similar initiatives in other European countries,” she adds.

Javier Tebas, President of LaLiga, hopes that this decision will resonate across other European countries. He encourages legislators, judges, and institutions to step up their efforts to protect rightsholders from live-streaming piracy.

“By adapting regulatory frameworks and fostering international alliances, we can ensure that the rights of all stakeholders in the sports ecosystem are respected and protected,” Tebas says.

TorrentFreak reached out to Rojadirecta’s operator to hear his side of the story. Seoane did not immediately respond.

This has been a rough month for the sports live-stream linking site on multiple fronts. After Spain’s Supreme Court previously held Seoane and his company liable for copyright infringement, a Spanish court ruled that they have to pay Mediapro 31.6 million euros in damages.

Source:   TorrentFreak.com