Court Forbids Spain’s Rojadirecta to Link to Pirated Sports Streams

Rojadirecta, Spain’s most popular live sports streaming site, has been ordered by a Madrid court to stop linking to unauthorized content within one week or be blocked by local Internet servers.

The site, which offers dozens of links to pirated sites to watch everything from NFL games, major league baseball, FIFA matches and Spain’s professional soccer league to Formula One and Grand Slam tennis, said it will not comply with the Madrid court’s order.  

The website, owned by Spanish group Puerto 80, maintains it is within the legal limits and warned the site might be blocked by Spanish telecoms within the coming weeks “temporarily.”

The site does not easily cave to pressure.

“We know the legality of Rojadirecta very well,” the group said in a release posted on the site. “Our way of operating and our continuity are not in danger.”

Not only has it survived two previous legal actions in Spain, but also in the in the U.S. The U.S. government was forced to drop the claim and return the domain to the group 19 months after it seized it in 2011 as part of an Internet crackdown.

 “Rojadirecta is advised in Europe by a number of legal teams with the best experience regarding Internet operators’ liabilities,” the site said. “We are very aware of the legality of Rojadirecta. Our operations now and in the future are not reckless.”

The Spanish professional soccer league brought the suit to the Madrid court.

The site is a discussion board where registered users talk sports, politics and other topics. Additionally, it links to sports streams, many of which are illegally accessed.

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