Streaming and BitTorrent Sports Links Site Declared Legal

Written by enigmax on July 24, 2009 

A site which carries links to both live streaming sporting events and BitTorrent downloads has had the case against it kicked out by a judge. Rojadirecta.com was initially reported for copyright infringement by sports rights holder AudioVisual Sports back in 2007, but it’s been decided they have no case to answer.

In 2007, Rojadirecta, which describes itself as one of the world’s major Internet sports broadcast indexes (linking to many soccer events plus NBA, MLB, NFL, NPB, IPL etc), was reported for copyright infringement by sports rights holder Audiovisual Sport.

The company, a subsidiary of Spanish communications group PRISA (which owns Canal+, SportMania, various satellite channels, radio stations and newspapers), accused Rojadirecta of facilitating copyright infringement on various sports broadcasts by providing access to them via the Internet.

Rojadirecta is a site that indexes http links to sports streams that can already be found on the Internet, and also carries links to .torrent files. It doesn’t host anything at all, it just carries links. It doesn’t operate a tracker and doesn’t even host the .torrent files it links to.

The admin of Rojadirecta told TorrentFreak that they felt the case was brought to scare them into closing the site without due process.

“In 2007 we publshed a press release where we interpreted the report as an intimidating tactic with which we thought the company believed we would give in to the interests of Audiovisual Sport without the need for justice to be handed down,” he told us.

“We decided to ignore them, continue with what we considered to be a legal service
and wait for the court’s decision. So we expected that outcome but we knew it was going to take a lot of time because Spanish courts are totally overloaded with work for many years now. So finally two years later here is the outcome: case filled,” he added.

This week, District Court No.37 in Madrid agreed to provisionally dismiss the complaint against Rojadirecta, after the claims made by Audiovisual Sport against it were undermined by expert police evidence.

“Audiovisual Sport was basically saying that we provide software that allows our users to watch content that in Spain is broadcasted with a encrypted system – probably trying to use a law that was created to stop people using satellite TV decoders without paying,” Rojadirecta’s admin told TorrentFreak.

“That law refers to software and hardware created to decode those signals without paying. The police expert’s report explained that this is not what P2P TV software does. The expert explained that those events are broadcasted openly on International TV stations and that the use of those apps are free, open and universal and not created by us,” he added.

Dismissing the case, the court went on to say that Rojadirecta merely offered links to software and links that enabled users to watch the events. Even though the site carried advertising, no profits were made directly from any infringement.

“We knew that it was a matter of time, because time, and especially logic showed we were right,” Rojadirecta’s admin told us.

A defiant and fully legal Rojadirecta says that sports broadcasts via the Internet of the Spanish soccer league will continue to be linked to via the site, along with many other sporting events from around the world including Champions League, Premier League, Serie A, NBA, MLB, NFL, NPB, IPL etc.

“Of course they [AudioVisual Sport] can appeal but if the things were clear before, with the outcome of this decision they are even more clear, if that’s possible,” he concluded.

Previously: Crazy Copyright Law Set to Cause Chaos in S.Korea

Next: UK ISP Cuts Off Alleged Pirates

18 Responses

1 Jul 24, 2009 at 15:03 by pantsman

Good to see them standing up for themselves.

2 Jul 24, 2009 at 15:04 by Anonymous

No surprise there.

3 Jul 24, 2009 at 15:09 by Jasper

this is a good fair case no corruption and no for assessment

4 Jul 24, 2009 at 15:15 by wonderwhy-er

Sounds logical. And as always industry claims are strange… From where they got an idea that site uses satellite signal cracking software/hardware… Funny how many industry claims are completely out of it.. They seem not to get Internet age technologies at all…

5 Jul 24, 2009 at 15:48 by No-name

It’s really easy if they want to stop people from watching p2p streams, broadcast EVERYTHING in all countries easily.
Because let’s face it, ESPN America in Europe is good, but not when you are a fan of the Blue Jays or any other team that is never getting air time. I speak for baseball here, but it’s the same for other sports.

6 Jul 24, 2009 at 16:59 by Anonymous Coward

I hope more cases like this appear where some dumb @$$ publisher/Corporate Media Goon (CMG) tries to scare site operators only to get it thrown in their face…

…The more publicity stuff like this gets, the more and more it’ll appear “common, rational, and acceptable” whilst CMG’s appear “Obsessive, Controling, and Greedy”

We just need them to continue to crumble away whats left of there public image.

7 Jul 24, 2009 at 17:07 by Tunisian

Rojadirecta + myp2p.eu are my favourites

Erratum

“In 2007 we publshed a press”

8 Jul 24, 2009 at 18:11 by Anonymous

“It doesn’t host anything at all, it just carries links.”

Just like the pirate bay.

Aparently the entertainment parasites are having hard time corrupting the spanish governement!
and the justice seem to still operate normally.

So Spain for some reason is resisting the virus. Interersting!

What a surprise!

9 Jul 24, 2009 at 18:54 by Skittles

Maybe i should relearn Spanish… Wait, whats the copyshit like over in Japan? I like their food better.

10 Jul 25, 2009 at 01:24 by Thats IT..

Im movings to Spain..

11 Jul 25, 2009 at 04:36 by Anonymous

“Wait, whats the copyshit like over in Japan?”
Very bad, but then again, they do everything underground in Japan, to hide away from copyright holders.

12 Jul 25, 2009 at 05:51 by .neo.styles|nvDX

“We’re not hosting anything” is probabaly the most commonly used and pathetic excuse used by people to absolve themselves of any responsibility/accountability. This should be all the more clear in this age of torrents. Those sports programs are copyrighted and they have conveniently organized them for viewing, either by streaming them or downloading .TORRENTS. They are enabling people to violate copyrights.

13 Jul 25, 2009 at 06:42 by Anonymous

i smell a troll

14 Jul 25, 2009 at 11:08 by El gordo

hey neo

vayase a la mierda maricon

15 Jul 25, 2009 at 14:56 by Uncle Slam

The last six movies, eight music albums, three video games and five software applications I downloaded were all found thanks to Google. I dare the entertainment industry to go after them for copyright infringement. >8-p

16 Jul 25, 2009 at 17:33 by dan

thanks to sites like rojadirecta and others, i am able to follow the teams i support in their respective live games. where i live, we dont have the ability to even purchase the allocated channel which would show the sporting events, theyre simply not available. im sure im not the only person out there in this predicament, so hopefully these great sites can continue to operate

17 Jul 25, 2009 at 17:38 by Anonymous

And there’s neodick again, who obviously knows Spanish law better then the judges themselves.

Rank Xerox is enabling people to violate copyrights too, but somehow we never hear him or his mafiaa buddies whinge about that.

18 Jul 31, 2009 at 01:09 by el rorro

en hora buena, roja directa nos da un servicion que no podemos adquirir en muchos paises

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